Nurses’ group: Abolishing exams perilous to health

MANILA, Philippines — The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) yesterday opposed the proposed abolition of licensure examination for nurses, citing the commercialization of nursing education in the country.

In a statement, FNU said that abolishing the licensure examination is “perilous to people’s health, especially at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

FNU underscored the importance of the board examination given “the current situation that the nursing education is highly commercialized with poor government regulation as to the standards and quality.”

“Although FNU believes that licensure examination is not the only barometer for quality of nursing education, the government has to have a mechanism to ensure and maintain the standards of health care practice,” the group noted.

FNU was reacting to the pronouncement of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III that he asked the Professional Regulation Commission about the possibility of abolishing the licensure board.

“Unlike the lawyers and engineers, nurses deal with the health and lives of patients and communities where human error or omission is critical to human safety, prolonging life and survival,” the group said.

Carpio bucks scrapping exams

Former Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio is also against the proposal to abolish Bar examinations for aspiring lawyers in the country.

“I think there should be an exam because not all schools are of the same quality,” he said in an interview with “The Chiefs” over One News on Friday night.

“Most countries have qualification requirements, usually an examination. In the UK (United Kingdom), they don’t have the one that is nationwide, you can be certified by a law office. But the trend is an examination,” he added.

Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo earlier rejected the idea, saying that he thinks “we should maintain the Bar examinations so that we can sift those who are competent, considering the nature of the legal profession,” which he described as vested with public interest.

Carpio also noted a proposal to adopt a “pass or fail” policy and remove rankings in the Bar exams, a system adopted in most countries.