Stop nursing’s decline

The 39.73 passing percentage in the latest Nursing Licensure Examination is the lowest in history, while the total of 94,462 who took that exam is the highest number on record. As students, we are quite alarmed at and frustrated with the low passing percentage because it shows that the quality of nursing education in the Philippines continues to decline.

According to the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), there are now 463 nursing schools in the country. All together, they produce thousands of graduates every year. For years now, we have observed that we students are not getting enough training because of the lack of facilities and disproportionate patient-student ratio. Ideally, the ratio should be two students to every patient. But at present, it is 15 students to one patient. As a result, we are having difficulty in meeting the number of (patient or medical) cases we are required to attend to. Many students thus just have to exercise their “creativity and resourcefulness” in meeting this graduation requirement, without necessarily handling cases or performing the various nursing procedures.

Because of government laxity, nursing education in the Philippines has become for private colleges and universities a business whose primary objective is to make excessive profits. We, specifically our parents and guardians, have to bear the combined burdens of exorbitant fees, high-priced school services and hospital affiliation fees. Yet these do not necessarily guarantee quality education, which is impossible to obtain without adequate facilities, modern equipment and sufficient clinical exposure.

Whose task is it to ensure quality nursing education? The government’s, which has been exporting nurses to other countries? The Commission on Higher Education’s, which has tailored the nursing curriculum to job qualifications abroad?

Education, especially in health-related courses like nursing, should serve our own people’s needs. In reality, because the government’s only concern is to produce nurses for “export” to bring in more OFW remittances and because the profits of nursing schools are not regulated, this problem—poor nursing education—will continue.

In the end, we students suffer from the poor quality of nursing education. Health Students’ Action (HSA) believes therefore that we, students, should come together to demand what is due us. After all, we have all the right to demand quality education for which we are charged and are paying for. We are health service providers. We should not allow ourselves to be forever treated as commodities, to be manufactured and sold for export.

—KEVIN YVES DUANE ASUNCION,
secretary general,
Health Students’ Action (HSA),
Syjuco Building, Remedios Street,
Ermita, Manila