Real Test Not in Passing Exams But Finding Jobs

LUCENA CITY, Philippines—Many nursing board examinees who are here for a two-day series of tests that began Saturday do not worry about passing the exams as much as finding employment afterward.

“If one seriously reviewed for the board, passing it is ‘chicken.’ But what is more challenging and really frustrating is the task ahead – job hunting,” said Joy Sta. Maria, one of the nursing graduates from Batangas who trooped to this city to take the bi-annual nursing board examinations.

He said he was not too optimistic about landing a job as a nurse even if he passed the board.

“Most probably, I would also end up as another jobless nurse in government statistics,” he said.

Most nurse aspirants interviewed by the Inquirer shared Sta. Maria’s fear that even if they passed the state licensure examination, finding employment in private and public hospitals was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

“The future is bleak. But I can’t do anything. I’m already stuck in this jobless profession,” Sta. Maria’s buddy lamented.

Lucena City is the designated nursing board center for Southern Tagalog examinees. Most aspirants were billeted in several hotels here.

Last Thursday, the Saint Jude Thaddeus parish church on the outskirts of the city was packed with nursing board examinees who were all praying for heaven’s intercession for them to successfully hurdle the tests.

The throng of young devotees brought with them pencils, envelopes and documents to be blessed with holy water by a priest.

Saint Jude is known as the patron saint of those in desperate situations or hopeless causes.

A female aspirant from this city admitted she no longer dreams of being hired as a nurse abroad even if she passes the government test.

“Landing an overseas job is a tall order. A professional nurse in the country today is considered very lucky if he gets hired even as a casual or ‘job order’ in a government hospital,” said board second-taker Mary Alegre.

Records from the Philippine Nurses Association showed that as early as 2006, demand from the traditional employers of nurses such as the United States and the United Kingdom has declined.

The serious problem of unemployment among nurses is forcing college freshmen to shift courses, according to a nursing teacher in one of the private colleges here.

“From more than 50 nursing freshmen last school year, we’re now down to 18 this year. The number of interested nursing students has dramatically declined,” said the professor, who requested anonymity.

Even Health Secretary Enrique Ona has been advising incoming college students to stay out of the nursing course due to the backlog of more than 200,000 Filipino nurses without jobs.

Early this year, the DOH launched the Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement And Local Service (RN Heals) to help lessen unemployment in the nursing sector.

The project allows nurses to serve in depressed municipalities for six months in exchange for a monthly allowance of P8,000.

Source: inquirer.net
posted by admin at 6:51 pm 0 comments links to this post
labels: nursing exam july 2011

Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) July 2011
held in the cities of Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cabanatuan, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, La Union, Legazpi, Lucena, Manila, Pagadian, Pampanga, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, Zamboanga and other testing centers in the Philippines.
Result links will be up when the July 2011 Nursing Board Exam or the NLE July 2011 results will be released in about forty eight (48) working days after the examination.

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The list of passers of the Nursing Licensure Exam July 2011 will be posted here in http://nle-boardexresult.blogspot.com// as soon as the official result is released.

June 2011 Pharmacist Licensure Examination results released in one (1) day
Posted on 6/29/2011

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announces that 790 out of 1,472 passed the Pharmacist Licensure Examination given by the Board of Pharmacy in the cities of Manila, Baguio and Cebu this June 2011.

The members of the Board of Pharmacy who gave the licensure examination are Ms. Jennifer M. Flores, Chairman and Ms. Marilyn M. Young-Tiu, Member.

The results were released in one (1) day after the last day of examination.

Registration for the issuance of Professional Identification Card (ID) and Certificate of Registration will start on Monday, July 11, 2011 but not later than July 22, 2011. Those who will register are required to bring the following: duly accomplished Oath Form or Panunumpa ng Propesyonal, current Community Tax Certificate (cedula), 2 pieces passport size picture (colored with white background and complete name tag), 1 piece 1” x 1” picture (colored with white background and complete name tag), 2 sets of metered documentary stamps and 1 short plastic envelope with name and profession; and to pay the Initial Registration Fee of P600 and Annual Registration Fee of P450 for 2011-2014. Successful examinees should personally register and sign in the Roster of Registered Professionals.

The oathtaking ceremony of the successful examinees in the said examination as well as the previous ones who have not taken their Oath of Professional will be held before the Board on Monday, August 1, 2011, at 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon at the Fiesta Pavilion, Manila Hotel, One Rizal Park, Roxas Boulevard, Manila.

140,000 Filipino nurses took US exam since 1995

MANILA, Philippines -- More than 140,000 Filipino nursing graduates have taken the NCLEX since 1995, in the hopes of obtaining employment in the United States, a lawmaker said.

Citing statistics from America’s National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (NCSBN), Rep. Arnel Ty of the party-list LPG/MA said a total of 140,451 Filipino nursing graduates took the US licensure exam for the first time in the 15 years from 1995 to the first quarter of 2011.

“Based on our review of the data, we reckon that at least 60 percent of Filipino nursing graduates those who took the NCLEX for the first time eventually qualified to enter US nursing profession, if not on their first attempt, on their second take of the US licensure exam,” Ty said.

Ty has been pushing for new legislation that would establish a special local jobs plan for the growing number of unemployed Filipino nurses.

As proposed by Ty in House Bill 4582, the jobs plan would be an expanded version of the Nurses Assigned in Rural Service (NARS), the short-lived Philippine government project that enlisted 10,000 nurses to improve healthcare in the 1,000 poorest towns in 2009.

The number of Filipino nursing graduates taking the NCLEX for the first time, excluding repeaters, is considered a good indicator as to how many of them are trying to enter the profession in the US.

Ty said Filipinos now comprise the largest group of foreign-educated nurses in America, ahead of those who graduated from India, South Korea, Canada, Nigeria, Cuba, and the United Kingdom.

Still, Ty urged the Philippine government to push for the opening of new foreign labor markets outside of America for the tens of thousands of jobless Filipino nurses at home.

He said Filipino nursing graduates could no longer count on the US labor market for jobs.

“On the supply side, America on its own has been producing an increasing number of nurses. In 2010 alone, US schools produced a total of 167,597 nursing graduates, 26 percent or 34,410 more than the 133,187 that they produced in 2006,” Ty pointed out.

As to the demand side, he said it has been slow to pick up in light of continued cutbacks in American hospital and nursing home subsidies at the federal, state and municipal levels.

Ty’s bill seeks to install a Special Program for the Employment of Nurses in Urban and Rural Services (NURSE), which would deliver additional healthcare to depressed towns in the countryside as well as informal settlements in urban areas.

The program would provide gainful employment to nurses while developing their competencies.

It hopes to mobilize a total of 10,000 nurses every year, with each practitioner serving a six-month tour of duty. They would get a monthly stipend not lower than the amount commensurate to Salary Grade 15, the higher starting pay for public nurses mandated by a 2002 law.The program would be directed, managed and administered jointly by the Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Health, and the Professional Regulation Commission, in consultation with the Board of Nursing.Nurses engaged under the program must not be over 35 years old, and must have a valid license.