80,000 nursing graduates to take June licensure examination

MANILA, Philippines - Close to 80,000 nursing graduates are set to take the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) next month, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) reported yesterday.

Marco Sto. Tomas, PRC’s Board of Nursing (BON) member, said a total of 78,574 nurses would take the licensure examination on June 6 and 7.

Manila has the biggest number of examinees with 42,338, followed by Baguio, 11,336; Cebu, 6,948 and Davao, 4,069.

In remote Jolo, there are 635 nursing graduates who will take the exams, Sto. Tomas said.

He said there are fewer examinees in today’s batch because some nursing graduates failed to meet the deadline for the filing of the application for exams.

He also noted a decline in the number of enrollees who want to take up nursing as another factor why fewer nurses are taking the exams this June.

Although the demand for nurses has not dwindled, many of the new board passers are having a hard time finding employment here or abroad, Sto. Tomas said.

“The demand is there but the opportunities for employment for new graduates within the country are limited,” he explained.

He said countries hiring nurses would require one to two years of actual employment experience but existing health facilities in the country cannot provide this.

“We noted that some hospitals even ask graduates to pay just to get these clinical experiences in the guise of training.”

The BON is preparing a comprehensive “competency-based” career progression program to improve the Filipino nurses’ chance of employment, Sto. Tomas said.

The board is set to go into quarantine from May 27 until June 8 to preserve the integrity of the coming licensure examination, he added.