PRC admits leakage in nursing exams

Inquirer
Last updated 03:59am (Mla time) 07/15/2006

THE Professional Regulation Commission has admitted that there was a leakage of test questions in the June 2006 Nurses Licensure Examination and blamed two members of the Board of Nursing for the leaked questions.
In a statement, PRC chair Leonor Tripon-Rosero said its fact-finding committee has traced the leak to the manuscripts of two Board of Nursing members which PRC did not identify.
Rosero said the two erring board members would be penalized and administrative charges would be filed against them.
“This leakage irregularity shall be referred to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for its own investigation and determination of all the persons and parties involved and their prosecution under the law,” Rosero said.
The leakages in the nursing exams were first exposed by Baguio nursing graduates who saw photocopies of an 18-page document that contained handwritten test questions and answers.
Photocopies
The photocopies were distributed by the R.A. Gapuz Review Center to its nursing licensure applicants, who had shared their copies with some of the complainants.
Deans of nursing schools in Baguio City and 91 of their graduates are seeking the suspension of the nursing board members and licensure test results until an independent fact-finding body can unearth alleged irregularities in the exams.
Nursing school deans of St. Louis University (SLU), Easter College and the University of the Cordilleras (UC) on Friday said they have evidence linking other review schools to the licensure exam leakages.
They urged the PRC to immediately refer evidence implicating the two nursing board members to a more credible and independent investigative body.
Deans Maria Grace Lacanaria (SLU), Ruth Thelma Tingda (Easter College) and Norenia Dao-ayen (UC) said the investigating body should include members of the Philippine Nurses Association, NBI, the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing and the PRC.
The PRC has asked the Board of Nursing and officials of the R.A. Gapuz Review Center to respond to the complaints on Tuesday.
Leakage
As this developed, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration warned that the leakage in the nursing exams could taint the credibility of entire government-sponsored testing system and affect the image of all Filipino professionals going out of the country.
POEA chief Rosalinda Baldoz said that as a result of the scandal, the government’s lobbying to host the National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses of the United States has been experiencing difficulties.
“We’re not being favorably considered to host the NCLEX due to alleged forgeries and fraud in the licensure examinations. This has tainted the credibility of our nursing [board] exams,” Baldoz said.
With reports from Vincent Cabreza and Jerome Aning