Nursing grads ask PRC to suspend oathtaking

Some 100 nursing graduates from the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) asked the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) yesterday to explain the computation of their scores in last month’s licensure examination and to suspend the scheduled oath-taking of the 17,000 examinees who passed the test.

The UST students, majority of them wearing black shirts, and their professors trooped to the Ambassador Hotel to attend the Newsstand Forum, where PRC Chairperson Leonor Tripon-Rosero and other officials were the scheduled guests.

During the two-hour media forum, Rene Tadle, UST-Faculty Association of the College of Nursing (FACN) president, read a two-page letter before the PRC officials.

They said they were gravely concerned over the leakage in the June 11 and 12 nursing licensure examinations and asked why the commissioners would release results without first completing their administrative and criminal investigation.

"This action raises more doubts not only on the integrity of our licensure examination, but also on the quality of our country’s nursing graduates. More specifically, this action tarnishes the image of all the nursing graduates who took the licensure examination this year," the UST-FACN said.

They said this also has created a "cloud of doubt" on the ability of successful examinees "to provide safe and quality care for their future patients."

They also asked the Commission to explain the basis of the computation of the examinees’ grades. In question were PRC’s invalidation of 25 questions in Test 3, which covered medical surgical nursing, and questions in Test 5, which covered psychiatric nursing.

"We call on the PRC to suspend the scheduled oathtaking while the results of a full-scale and independent investigation are still pending. We call on the PRC and the Board of Nursing (BON) to immediately resolve the issue," they added.

Last Monday, the PRC forwarded documents and its findings to the NBI-Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division (AFCCD) to determine the criminal culpability of those responsible for the leakage.

The PRC-Fact Finding Committee asked BON members Anesia Dionisio and Virgina Madeja to inhibit themselves from the official functions of the board. They also recommended that administrative charges be filed against them for alleged neglect of duty that gave rise to the leakage.

Rosero clarified that the alleged leakage of questionnaires did not originate from the PRC. "It came from outside the premises and we cannot control that."

She also said that they cannot wait for the results of the investigation before holding the oathtaking because the investigation could drag on from six months to three years.

Some 17,000 of the 42,000 who took the exam last June passed. — Evelyn Macairan