EDITORIAL – Substandard

The exodus of nurses for better paying jobs abroad may be minimized, but for the wrong reasons. The Philippine Nurses’ Association is warning that the proliferation of substandard nursing schools has led to the deterioration of the quality of graduates, which could harm the image of Philippine nurses abroad. With other countries sending their own nurses overseas, Filipino nurses may soon see their competitiveness slipping in the foreign job market.

It’s not for lack of trying to regulate nursing education. The nurses’ association reports that there are 38 nursing schools with "very, very poor performance" and 23 others that do not even have operating permits. When the Commission on Higher Education tried to shut down the 23 schools, the order was overruled by higher authorities.

Some politicians apparently earned brownie points with potential campaign donors by overruling the CHED, but the consequences of the failure to regulate nursing schools will boomerang on the nation. The huge demand abroad for Philippine nurses has prompted even doctors to take nursing courses, and has caused nursing schools to mushroom nationwide. If operators of these nursing schools are left to teach whatever they want, with the CHED rendered helpless in enforcing education standards, the quality of nursing graduates will inevitably suffer. And Philippine nurses will increasingly see themselves being bypassed in job hiring overseas in favor of better trained nurses from other countries.

If a tightening foreign job market forces graduates of these substandard nursing schools to work in the Philippines, they will then pose a problem to public health care, which is suffering enough from the growing lack of health professionals. A recent report said several health centers outside Metro Manila had been forced to shut down due to the lack of doctors, nurses and other health workers. If the remaining health centers are staffed with the poorly trained graduates of substandard nursing schools, it will simply compound this national tragedy.