Someone who is supposedly a registered nurse

These past few days a growing concern is undeniably bugging me. And I must admit that it is getting on my nerves. What seems to be a joyous event has gradually transformed into a nightmare. This makes you wonder, have we as a nation transformed into a nation of thieves, philanderers, and pigs?

Scandals in the Philippines come and go without any resolution whatsoever. What only remains is the continuous bickering and mud-slinging. I'd say innocent victims are caught in the crossfire.

And now we have the nursing board examination fiasco, which according to most people endangers the nursing profession; ipso facto the nurses who wish to go abroad and earn a decent living is but a mirage these days. Batch 2006 board passers are in hell, whether you benefited from the leakage or not. Their names are smeared and no one seems to be the culprit. Some even claim that top hospitals don't accept 2006 board passers.

I say that this is such a shame. If this is true, not only do they deprive the nurse to practice his or her profession, this is an example of an outward and blatant discrimination. Let me explain. What hospitals should do is sift the applicants and not give out blanket bans as it is a security blanket. Hell no, you can't do that. For instance, big companies have a battery of tests, interviews, and other sifting mechanisms. This ensures at the very least plausible elimination of incompetent nurses. To say that it is in the best interest of patients care not to accept new nurses is utter lunacy and ridiculous because there are also board passers who work damn hard to pass the exam.

What an unfortunate event blown out of proportion. The proposed solution by the “high command” promises to remove incompetent and undeserving nurses.

A bold move, I must say. There's a BUT. The move won't solve any smear. Let me break it down.

1. If there ever was a leakage, what is the guarantee that there will be none next time?

This may sound pessimistic but hey, if it happened before then the likelihood of it repeating is high. What we will have is more hush-hush to prevent any attention. Supposedly, the mechanism that protects the questionnaires is fool-proof.

2. The likelihood that cheaters will fail is also equal to the likelihood that passers will fail.

Let's face it. The questions are not standardized questions. They do not ascertain your ultimate nursing skills. Why do I say this? Unlike NCLEX-CAT which assesses one's answer in every question, the board exam in the Philippines have a constant number of questions. So there's a degree of subjectivity which regards to the level of difficulty of the question. In the NCLEX-CAT, the difficulty increases for every correct answer and for every wrong answer the questions that proceed are adjusted.

Hence, the require level of minimum entry-level competency is established. Unfortunately, that is not seen in the local boards so still there will be people who will be axed.

3. A retake will not salvage the image of nurses in the international community.

This seems to be the million dollar baby for most deans, personalities and nursing aficionados. They claim that the international community (ie. hospitals, agencies, homes) won't accept our new nurses on the basis that the local boards are loaded with leaked questions.

This is absurd. Each country have their own laws that regulate the nursing profession and in most instances require foreign graduates to take a battery of examinations. This presupposes that the state/country also looks into the competence of nurses. A failure in these examinations presupposes that the person has not yet achieve minimum standard of competency. Therefore, results of examinations dictate whether one is ready to practice or not. Mind you, even some local board passers fail this battery of tests.

4. The retake will not resolve the issue, once and for all.

A retake like some panacea would remove all traces of the leakage. I don't think so! Considering that the culprits are still free to roam around. Remember that one that sold the leakages is still free and isn't made culpable. A retake will not expose the culprit.

What will expose them?

The best way to do so, is to give incentives to a holder of the leakage. Turn him/her into a state's witness that way we can create the necessary link and make the big bosses culpable. In an analogy, we are letting the small fry go in order to get the big fish.

At the end of the day, the decision of the Board of Nursing will be a double-edged sword. They can't please everybody. Might as well, look into the innocents caught in the crossfire - the nurses who passed fair and square.