EDITORIAL — Bite the bullet

The government is considering financial and other forms of assistance to nursing graduates who passed the board examination in June last year but may have to retake it because some of the examinees cheated. Retaking the examination will give the graduates a better chance of landing a nursing job in the United States, where demand for Philippine nurses had been high until the cheating scandal rocked the board examination.

Many months after the scandal erupted, authorities have not yet identified those who benefited from the leakage of questions in two portions of the exams. The source of the leak was traced to a review center whose operations have been suspended. But authorities have not yet determined conclusively how the questions were obtained, and whether certain personnel of the Professional Regulation Commission, which administers the tests, were involved in the leakage. The failure to identify the culprits and impose appropriate punishment guarantees a repeat of the cheating. That failure also continues to compromise the integrity of Philippine nurses, who were much in demand all over the globe until the scandal erupted.

This is evident in the refusal of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools, an international non-government organization, to endorse the issuance of US Visa Screen certificates to the 17,000 nursing graduates who passed the June 2006 exam unless they retake the test.

A former chief of the Board of Nursing said only 30 US states require foreign nurses to obtain the stamp of approval of the CGFNS. But the 20 states that don’t still want foreign medical professionals to meet the credentials set by the CGFNS.

Those who passed the board exam without cheating have reason to complain that life is unfair, and can try to find jobs in countries other than the United States. But the cheating scandal will always cast a cloud of suspicion over the qualifications of the entire batch that took the tainted test. It can even cast doubts over the qualifications of all Filipino nurses, especially those working overseas.

This situation could have been avoided if authorities had identified those who leaked the test questions and benefited from the leakage, punished the culprits and implemented measures to prevent a repeat of the cheating. With the government unable to do any of that, those who passed the board exam without cheating will just have to take a new test. For those who took no part in the cheating, it is unfair, but it is the best way out.