Philippine Nurses Association rejects Bello proposal to scrap board exams

The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) on Thursday rejected a proposal by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to scrap licensure exams, maintaining that the competency of health professionals must be ensured.

In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, PNA national president Melbert Reyes said they and the Board of Nursing "immediately rejected" Bello’s proposal when the secretary raised it in a meeting on the health worker deployment ban earlier this week.

“Hindi puwede ‘yan, buhay kasi ang hinahawakan namin eh [That can’t be because lives are in our hands]. We need to ensure that health professionals are competent enough,” he said.

“Bababa po ‘yung quality, actually, ‘pag hindi tayo nag-board exam. Bababa ‘yung level natin [The quality and our level will go down if we don't have board exams],” he added.

Reyes also said board exams serve as the check and balance for the quality of education, noting the existence of “fly by night” schools.

He added that the Board of Nursing also thumbed down Bello’s proposal during their meeting, while the labor chief insisted that it was something the Professional Regulation Commission should look into.

Bello floated the idea of doing away with licensure exams for nurses and lawyers, among others, due to the high financial costs of studying and taking the boards. 

The labor chief argued that as long as a student graduated from an institution accredited by the Commission on Higher Education, there should be no need for licensure exams. —KBK, GMA News