Most Filipinos trust competence of June 2006 nursing passers

By Kate V. Pedroso
Inquirer
Last updated 09:54pm (Mla time) 02/20/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- While most Filipinos would trust passers of the controversial June 2006 nursing board exam to take care of them in sickness, they also agreed that opportunities for the nurses to work abroad would decrease as an aftermath of the cheating that marred the exams, recent surveys from the Social Weather Stations found.

The US Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS International) recently decided not to issue VisaScreen certificates to passers of the nursing licensure examinations in June 2006, unless they would retake and pass two parts of the tests which were allegedly leaked.

The US CGFNS said "the licensure process for those who received their license as a result of passing the compromised June 2006 licensure examination raises significant questions about the accurate assessment of the competencies of many of those individuals."

In a September 2006 survey, the SWS asked the respondents if they agree or disagree with the following statement: "Even if there was leakage in the recent Nursing Board Exam, I would trust someone who passed that exam to take care of me in case I would get sick."

Fifty three percent of adult Filipinos interviewed nationwide during the Third Quarter SWS survey in September 2006 said they agreed, while 25 percent disagreed and 19 percent said they were undecided.

This sentiment was shared across all socio-economic classes (60 percent in classes ABC, 54 percent among members of Class D and 50 percent in class E). Majority also agreed with the statement in the rest of Luzon (62 percent) and in Metro Manila (53 percent ), whereas 45 percent in both Visayas and Mindanao likewise trusted the competency of the June 2006 exam passers.

During the November 2006 Fourth Quarter SWS survey, the SWS asked respondents if they agreed with the following statement: "Because of the cheating that happened in the recent nursing board exam, from now on there will probably be a drop in the opportunities for nurses trained in the Philippines to get jobs abroad."

Fifty-three percent agreed with the statement, only 20 percent disagreed, while 24 percent said they were undecided.

Most Filipinos followed the issue closely -- 55 percent said they followed news on the leakage controversy "very or somewhat closely" in September 2006, and 52 percent said so in November.

Among those who followed the issue "very or somewhat closely," 60 percent agreed that there would probably be a drop in career opportunities abroad for Filipino nurses as a result of the event, whereas among those who followed the news "just a little or not at all," 46 percent expressed the same sentiment.

Both Social Weather Stations surveys used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults divided into samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The Third Quarter SWS survey was conducted from September 24 to October 2, while the Fourth Quarter survey was done from November 24 to 29. Both had a margin of error of plus-minus 3 percentage points.