US nursing boards to keep eye on resolution of leak scandal

First posted 07:08pm (Mla time)
Oct 25, 2006
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQ7.net

THE NATIONAL organization of US state nursing boards said on Wednesday it is closely watching how the government resolves the scandal triggered by the leakage of questions for the June nursing licensure examinations.

At the same time, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, also urged the Philippines not to waste any opportunity to improve its systems.

"We are very interested to see that you handle the crisis and I think it’s something that you don’t want to waste [the] opportunity to make your own system better. But how you handle [the problem] is really up to the Philippines," Faith Fields, the new council president, said when asked for her reaction to the nursing board controversy.

Fields, who with other officials of the group paid a courtesy call on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacañang, noted that around 80 percent of the foreign nurses in the US come from the Philippines.

In a separate interview, Commission of Filipino Overseas chairman Dante Ang said it was important to resolve the nursing board controversy at once so that the employment of Filipino nurses abroad will not be affected.

From reports he gathered, Ang said the controversy has created a stigma that has made overseas employment for Filipino nurses difficult.

Ang is supporting the Court of Appeals decision for a selective retake of the June exams.