Visa realities

Inquirer
Last updated 04:05am (Mla time) 02/19/2007

IN AN IDEAL WORLD, WE WOULDN’T NEED TO send our nursing graduates abroad, especially to the United States, to find a job commensurate with their skill and knowledge. While we should all work to make that ideal state of affairs a reality, we should also be ready for—in fact, we should fully come to terms with—the less than ideal conditions that govern the nursing profession in the Philippines.

One such condition is the profession’s current dependence on work in hospitals and clinics abroad, especially in the United States. In the last several years, the wave of registered nurses leaving the country for assignments in foreign shores has turned into a tsunami. Even if the national government were to try to stop the flood, like King Canute it would quickly discover the limit of its considerable powers. The best it can do, in simplified terms, is first to ensure that enough nurses remain in the country to man our own hospitals and clinics; and second, to provide support to the nurses who are hired abroad.

We are happy to note that, unlike most other overseas Filipino workers, the Filipino nurse enjoys the privilege of legally immigrating with her family; social costs are still incurred, but these are mitigated—subsidized, so to speak—by a host country’s open-minded immigration policy. We also note, with a quickening sense of hope, that the new policy of medical tourism is already making a difference in the country’s best hospitals. This can only lead to better jobs for more nurses here at home.

But there is no denying the outbound orientation that now marks the nursing profession. That is why the decision of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing in the United States to designate Manila as a new site for the administration of licensure examinations is welcome and bracing news.

That is also why the decision by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools to deny the (US) VisaScreen certificate to Filipino nurses who passed the June 2006 board exams is deeply worrying.

On the CGFNS website, the first Frequently Asked Question is answered in this manner: “The passage of the NCLEX or the CGFNS Examination is only one of four general VisaScreen requirements. Under normal circumstances, passage of either examination will fulfill this particular requirement. However, the license of those Philippine Nurses who passed only the June 2006 Exam has been determined to be ‘not comparable’ to a US nursing license due to the fact that the licensing examination given by the PRC was compromised. Therefore, the VisaScreen certificate cannot be issued, as required by US immigration law and its implementing regulations to those participating in only this compromised examination.”

The CGFNS is referring, of course, to the leakage scandal that rocked the June 2006 examinations. An indecisive response from the Arroyo administration helped lead to a protracted legal battle and eventually a Solomonic ruling. With the latest CGFNS announcement, however, a retake for all nurses who took the June 2006 exams, at least those who wish to work in the United States, seems to be in order.

Unfortunately, much of the initial reaction to the CGFNS decision has been spectacularly beside the point. “It’s really unfair because the Supreme Court has already arrived at a decision,” said Renato Aquino, president of the Alliance of New Nurses. “The high court has already ruled against the retaking of the exams due to lack of evidence.”

Well, yes. But the CGFNS was careful to limit the scope of its own decision. “The CGFNS decision to deny the VisaScreen to the June 2006 passers of the Philippine Nursing Licensure Examination relates only to US immigration law.”

In other words, the Supreme Court ruling remains fully applicable to Philippine practice. But it cannot be, it was not meant to be, a substitute for another country’s requirements. The best it could have done was assuage CGFNS concerns about the integrity of the June 2006 exams. Unfortunately, those concerns about a “compromised” test remain.

By all means, the Arroyo administration should act decisively and appeal to the CGFNS to reconsider its decision. But, at the same time, it must already prepare those who want to work in the United States for the probability of a distasteful but necessary retake. It is bitter medicine, and we must swallow it.