CHEd blamed For Nursing Mess, Nursing Committee resign en MASSE
CHEd blamed for nursing mess
Committee members resign en masse
By Alcuin Papa
Inquirer
Last updated 03:21am (Mla time) 07/08/2006
THE QUALITY of nursing graduates and of nursing education has dropped because the Commission on Higher Education has surrendered to business and political interests.
This claim was made by the CHEd's Technical Committee on Nursing Education (TCNE), which was formed to give advice to the commission, and whose members resigned en masse on Friday.
In their resignation letter, the committee members said the CHEd "lacks the will to assure quality nursing education."
"We believe that the TCNE and CHEd are divided in their positions on the different nursing education quality issues. We feel that we no longer have the support of the CHEd commissioners and some regional directors in upholding the quality of Philippine nursing education, which is our primordial mission," they said.
Vested interests
They added that instead of acting on their recommendations, CHEd had "buckled down to pressure from vested political and economic interests, sacrificing quality for mediocrity and business interests."
Asked to comment, CHEd chairman Carlito Puno said: "I deny that. We in the commission told them that we must be careful with our decisions. Huwag sugod nang sugod [Let us not rush] because these kinds of decisions are specific to a class and have legal implications."
Later, however, Puno admitted that the issue had "political, economic and legal implications."
Beset by problems
The TCNE is chaired by Marilyn E. Lorenzo, director of the Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies.
Its members are Carmelita C. Divinagracia, dean of the University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Medical Center College of Nursing; Remedios L. Fernandez of the Board of Nursing; Amelia Rosales, chief of nurses at the Makati Medical Center; Zylma Sanchez, formerly with the Philippine Heart Center; Glenda Vargas, dean of the University of Santo Tomas College of Nursing; and Rita Tamse, deputy director for nursing of the Philippine General Hospital.
"Nursing has become one of the most, if not the most, popular courses. But it is beset by problems. There is a rapid increase in the number of schools but there is a slow deterioration of the quality," Lorenzo told reporters.
As evidence, she said the passing rate in the nursing board exams had hovered below 50 percent for the past few years. She said she expected the result of the last board exam, now mired in a leakage controversy, to be the same.
'Flying deans'
Divinagracia said a survey conducted three years ago revealed a number of unqualified nursing school deans.
She said some were "flying deans," meaning they were serving as deans and or faculty members in more than one school.
"Definitely, this affects the education system of a school," Divinagracia said.
The result is that new graduates fail to gain acceptance in even local hospitals.
There were about 100,000 nursing graduates last year, produced by some 470 nursing schools nationwide.
"There is pressure from school owners for us to bring down standards," Lorenzo said. "You cannot solve a problem with another problem. The solution is to reduce the number of schools, not lower standards."
The TCNE members also said they had recommended, without success, the restoration of the abolished extra year for nursing, making it a five-year course again.
They said this was necessary to make Filipino nurses competitive with their counterparts from India and China.
Puno said it was not only the quality of nursing education that had waned.
"I am the first to admit that the quality of tertiary education has gone down in general, including nursing. This is due to the very poor skills of students in English, science and math," he said.
Puno also said that if there should be blame, part of it should fall on the TCNE members "who had been there for the last four or five years" and were "part of policymaking."
He said resignation was not the way to deal with the problems besetting the system.
"If they want to convince us, they should present hard facts and statistics and argue with us," Puno said.
From Philippine daily inquirer
http://globalnation.inq7.net/news/news/view_article.php?article_id=8754
Committee members resign en masse
By Alcuin Papa
Inquirer
Last updated 03:21am (Mla time) 07/08/2006
THE QUALITY of nursing graduates and of nursing education has dropped because the Commission on Higher Education has surrendered to business and political interests.
This claim was made by the CHEd's Technical Committee on Nursing Education (TCNE), which was formed to give advice to the commission, and whose members resigned en masse on Friday.
In their resignation letter, the committee members said the CHEd "lacks the will to assure quality nursing education."
"We believe that the TCNE and CHEd are divided in their positions on the different nursing education quality issues. We feel that we no longer have the support of the CHEd commissioners and some regional directors in upholding the quality of Philippine nursing education, which is our primordial mission," they said.
Vested interests
They added that instead of acting on their recommendations, CHEd had "buckled down to pressure from vested political and economic interests, sacrificing quality for mediocrity and business interests."
Asked to comment, CHEd chairman Carlito Puno said: "I deny that. We in the commission told them that we must be careful with our decisions. Huwag sugod nang sugod [Let us not rush] because these kinds of decisions are specific to a class and have legal implications."
Later, however, Puno admitted that the issue had "political, economic and legal implications."
Beset by problems
The TCNE is chaired by Marilyn E. Lorenzo, director of the Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies.
Its members are Carmelita C. Divinagracia, dean of the University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Medical Center College of Nursing; Remedios L. Fernandez of the Board of Nursing; Amelia Rosales, chief of nurses at the Makati Medical Center; Zylma Sanchez, formerly with the Philippine Heart Center; Glenda Vargas, dean of the University of Santo Tomas College of Nursing; and Rita Tamse, deputy director for nursing of the Philippine General Hospital.
"Nursing has become one of the most, if not the most, popular courses. But it is beset by problems. There is a rapid increase in the number of schools but there is a slow deterioration of the quality," Lorenzo told reporters.
As evidence, she said the passing rate in the nursing board exams had hovered below 50 percent for the past few years. She said she expected the result of the last board exam, now mired in a leakage controversy, to be the same.
'Flying deans'
Divinagracia said a survey conducted three years ago revealed a number of unqualified nursing school deans.
She said some were "flying deans," meaning they were serving as deans and or faculty members in more than one school.
"Definitely, this affects the education system of a school," Divinagracia said.
The result is that new graduates fail to gain acceptance in even local hospitals.
There were about 100,000 nursing graduates last year, produced by some 470 nursing schools nationwide.
"There is pressure from school owners for us to bring down standards," Lorenzo said. "You cannot solve a problem with another problem. The solution is to reduce the number of schools, not lower standards."
The TCNE members also said they had recommended, without success, the restoration of the abolished extra year for nursing, making it a five-year course again.
They said this was necessary to make Filipino nurses competitive with their counterparts from India and China.
Puno said it was not only the quality of nursing education that had waned.
"I am the first to admit that the quality of tertiary education has gone down in general, including nursing. This is due to the very poor skills of students in English, science and math," he said.
Puno also said that if there should be blame, part of it should fall on the TCNE members "who had been there for the last four or five years" and were "part of policymaking."
He said resignation was not the way to deal with the problems besetting the system.
"If they want to convince us, they should present hard facts and statistics and argue with us," Puno said.
From Philippine daily inquirer
http://globalnation.inq7.net/news/news/view_article.php?article_id=8754
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