US nursing group, RP mull flexibility on VisaScreen

By Jerome Aning
Inquirer
Last updated 07:27pm (Mla time) 02/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine government may open informal talks with the United States’ Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) to ask for a "flexible implementation" of its policy requiring nurses who passed the June 2006 board exams to retake disputed portions of the test to be eligible for visas, an official said Monday.

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said he met with CGFNS representatives on Sunday and asked them if they would be flexible about the retake for nurses who would want to work in America.

"'We can talk,' they said; we talked about some options, which I cannot yet make public," he told reporters. "We'll explore possibilities of flexible implementation during the informal talks because I think our chances are better if we use this option."

The Secretary said he also met officials of the Professional Regulatory Commission Monday morning to relay the "options" he discussed with CGFNS representatives.

"I think these options could solve our problem with CGFNS," Brion said.

For her part, PRC chair Leonor Rosero said she and other labor officials were set to meet on Monday afternoon with the Philippine Nursing Association and the Board of Nursing, together with the 17,000 examinees or their representatives.

All legal implications of the CGFNS announcement were supposed to be discussed so that PRC, PNA and BON could formulate a single stand on the issue.

Brion said he had asked CGFNS to make public announcements explaining the VisaScreen process. He said CGFNS representatives were planning to put up a "public bulletin" to explain the policies of their group and to clarify the "retake" requirement for June 2006 NLE takers.

In an earlier radio interview, the labor secretary said he consulted with the Department of Labor and Employment's legal department and found out that the possibility of a formal appeal as ordered by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last week was dim.

"I don't see any chance of success with a formal appeal; I've asked our lawyers to look into the matter but so far they are not too happy about a formal appeal and say there is not much we can do about a US law," he told radio station dzEC.

Last week, CGFNS required successful examinees in June 2006 to retake Tests 3 and 5 of the exam for a VisaScreen certificate, a requirement to apply for nursing and other health care jobs in the US.

The Commission said the certificate would not be issued to applicants unless they would re-take the test modules, whose results were allegedly leaked to board takers during the June 2006 nursing licensure exam.

At least 20 states in the US do not require Visascreens, Rosero said.

Meanwhile, Brion admitted the government was still not sure how it could assist the affected nursing examinees in getting work in the US, at least for now.

Malacañang had promised to extend assistance to the examinees in getting work abroad, including the US.

The labor secretary said most of the country's nurses had been going to the Middle East. Those who go to the US and other Western countries only do so because they have a chance to immigrate later on and bring their families, according to him.