DoJ chief sees no legal problems in nurses’ exam retake

By Leila Salaverria, Nikko Dizon
Inquirer
Last updated 09:26pm (Mla time) 02/18/2007

MANILA, Philippines--Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez thinks there is no legal problem if the government accedes to the condition of a United States board that those who passed the June 2006 nursing licensure exam be made to retake the leakage-tainted Tests 3 and 5 before they are allowed to work in the US.

“If the Professional Regulation Commission will order a retake in order to satisfy the requirements of the US market, I think there’s nothing wrong with that. It only means we’re taking cognizance of the US request,” Gonzalez said.

He said the retake “has nothing to do with the Philippine policy on these nurses.”

Gonzalez said the retake would be done to satisfy the requirement of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), a US-based independent organization screening foreign nurse applicants for visa certificates in the United States.

A majority of US states require foreign nurses to obtain CGFNS-issued VisaScreen Certificates, a federally approved screening program for foreign healthcare workers seeking an occupational visa in the United States.

The CGFNS announced on its website Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) that the June 2006 passers would not be eligible for VisaScreen Certificates unless they take the equivalent of Tests 3 and 5 “on a future licensing examination administered by Philippine regulatory authorities” and obtain a passing score.

The CGFNS urged Philippine authorities to “provide an opportunity for a retake” for the passers “without surrender of licensure” for them to qualify for the VisaScreen Certificate.

The US-based group made the announcement a day after the Philippine Supreme Court rejected with finality, on a technicality, the plea of groups, including nursing professors led by those from the University of Sto. Tomas, to order a retake of the tainted portions of the board exam.

The nursing professors questioned before the high tribunal the Court of Appeals decision to order only a selective retake of the examination, paving the way for the oath-taking of the passers.

Some 17,800 of 42,006 examinees passed the June 2006 board exam.

The appellate court had ruled that those affected by the PRC’s recomputation of grades, which the commission nullified, would retake Test 3 (medical-surgical nursing) and Test 5 (psychiatric nursing) whose questions had been leaked beforehand.

Gonzalez said the Philippine Supreme Court’s decision was not binding on the United States.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday directed Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to appeal for the reconsideration of the CGFNS decision.

Brion said he was worried other countries might also require those who passed the June 2006 board exam to retake the questioned portions.

The CGFNS decision came less than a week after American officials approved the Philippine application to be a testing center for the National Council Licensure Examination.

The NCLEX exam, taken by some 9,000 Filipinos annually, is a key requirement for nurses to be able to work in the United States.

The Alliance of New Nurses (ANN), a group of passers of the June 2006 board exam, urged the government to stand pat on its decision not to hold a retake of the tainted tests and to continue to appeal the CGFNS requirement.

“There was nothing wrong with the decision of the Philippine government not to order a retake,” ANN spokesperson Renato Aquino said.

He blamed Dante Ang of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas for the CGFNS decision. CGFNS representatives met only with Ang and with the PRC before the CGFNS announced its requirement, Aquino said.

Ang had been supportive of a retake of the tainted tests, but the PRC was against it. “He made a mess, and he should clean up the mess that he started,” Aquino said.

He also said the CGFNS requirement amounted to an interference in the country’s internal affairs.

Aquino urged Philippine government agencies to work together to convince the CGFNS to scrap its requirement of a retake.

He said the CGFNS decision was another ordeal that the June 2006 exam passers would have to face.

He said the batch’s oath-taking has been postponed for months, hindering its members from working as nurses.

While the ANN is against a retake, the president of the Philippine Nursing Association (PNA) supports it.

“It’s their (nurses) decision if they want to re-take. And they should be allowed because that’s their human right,” said the PNA president, Dr. Leah Paquiz.

Paquiz said the CGFNS decision came as a blow to the June 2006 board passers who wanted to pursue careers in the United States.

She described the leakage in last year’s exam as the biggest crisis to hit the country’s profession since she became a nurse in 1974.

Paquiz said the PNA would meet with “all specialty groups and all nursing leaders” Monday afternoon to discuss what to do in light of the CGFNS decision.

“We don’t want to divide the profession anymore. That’s why we will be discussing this first before we issue an official statement,” Paquiz said.

She said: “We will be making one stand. Our nursing profession has been tainted.”