August 17, 2006 – (Manila) – At this point and at this stage, we engage a moment of what I call, “rangst” – a combination of ranting and angst.
This country never learns from its own mistakes and we are simply at it, trying over and over again trying to get away with crime or at least in this case, getting to cheat.
Perhaps it’s all about desperation or pure stupidity, or just a simple lie, betrayal of trust, the lack of honor and respect for the established process are the causes for this latest stupid incident.
Last June 2006, the Professional Regulation Commission or PRC conducted its usual three times in a year licensure examination for nursing graduates of the country.
Several weeks later, just even before the results were released, rumors spread that portions of the examinations were leaked to students for a fee.
Latest allegations indicate that as much as a whopping PhP 7 million was allegedly given to examiners, or the Board of Nursing of the PRC who were responsible for formulating the examination questions just to release portions of the exams before the exam date.
The test questions were reportedly released to a registered review center for nurses and was sold for a premium to every student who wanted to get an advance peek on the test questions.
This is a classic case of desperation and a building a stupid dangerous scenario.
What boils down as important in conducting board exams is to identify whether or not a student after years of specialization is academically competent enough to be given a license to practice.
Don’t these people understand that if not for a board exam, licensing and legitimizing their skills and their profession is important?
Where is the honor there to have honestly passed an exam and be merited by a license?
Where is the dignity there if we cheated?
Nursing may not be as critical as the function of doctors but nonetheless, nurses are at the frontline of health care and though giving exams is not wholly useful to measure someone’s skills, yet it is still as important to determine whether one could entrust someone’s life with a competent nurse.
Getting the exams and passing it means you are at a certain standard and that small identification card is proof, your badge that you are at par, a symbol of honor by itself.
Cheating in the national board exams is not a new story and this has been repeatedly attempted in the past, and with this, it can’t be blamed if one now feels that several past examinations might have been rigged, fixed or leaked and no one simply found out or spoke about it.
Cheating in the examinations will now cast a cloud of doubt on the competence of nursing graduates from this country who are already abroad or about to leave the country.
Reality wise, we didn’t have an increase in enrollment in nursing schools to care for our own people, as the reality here is that more than half who enrolled in a nursing school in the last five years in among the many schools of nursing that were recently opened, all of the students are eyeing for a chance to work abroad.
The desire to earn better and more is the main driving force as to why people change career tracks and become nurses, including the doctors who claim they could earn more if they just became nurses.
Is it all about money that we become so obsessed and even consider the act of cheating?
This country is exporting labor both professionals and skilled, even including the unskilled. The local board or licensure examinations have a little impact for host countries and they would insist that our people still undergo their examination and licensure procedures.
Regardless we should say to these host nations because no exam is a threat or an obstacle if the examinee is truly competent in what he does.
Are we really producing nurses who truly care for their patients or are we just letting people take this career track for the money?
If one is truly sincere and capable in becoming a nurse then why cheat and why force oneself to become one.
As I keep telling my staff before, “We may be all be made of carbon but despite the years of intense pressure and grinding, it is no guarantee we could all become diamonds.”
Regardless if the licensure examinations our country administers have little significance to host countries, stories telling them that our people cheat in order to pass will cast an ugly impression not just for those who will be found to have cheated but also for all who came from this country. A shadow looms on the competency of our professional nurses.
It is sad that this country never learns and there are no attempts to learn or at least uphold the principles of honor in order to achieve their goals.
Stories of cheating is not new to this country!
In the last decade alone, there have been allegations that entrance exams for medical school has been rigged to favor a few, bar exams for lawyers was also allegedly manipulated, and even teacher’s professional exams were tampered and this is all for a fee.
Our great nation was also accused of cheating on the real ages of baseball players competing for, yes believe it, the Little League.
Passing off teenagers after they were “processed” to become children by virtue of changing their birth dates in order to gain upper hand to win titles and accolades in sports.
And we should not go too far when it comes to cheating, as we could always look at how we conduct elections in this country, where every election is tainted with the allegations of cheating.
“I’m sorry,” would not be acceptable to many hospitals all over the world who would be concerned with getting mediocre cheap and cheating Filipino nurses.
If we didn’t buy the, “I’m sorry,” from you know who, then the rest of the world won’t buy our “sorry” and this latest incident would tarnish whatever good name is there left about this nation and its hard working people.
This country never learns from its own mistakes and we are simply at it, trying over and over again trying to get away with crime or at least in this case, getting to cheat.
Perhaps it’s all about desperation or pure stupidity, or just a simple lie, betrayal of trust, the lack of honor and respect for the established process are the causes for this latest stupid incident.
Last June 2006, the Professional Regulation Commission or PRC conducted its usual three times in a year licensure examination for nursing graduates of the country.
Several weeks later, just even before the results were released, rumors spread that portions of the examinations were leaked to students for a fee.
Latest allegations indicate that as much as a whopping PhP 7 million was allegedly given to examiners, or the Board of Nursing of the PRC who were responsible for formulating the examination questions just to release portions of the exams before the exam date.
The test questions were reportedly released to a registered review center for nurses and was sold for a premium to every student who wanted to get an advance peek on the test questions.
This is a classic case of desperation and a building a stupid dangerous scenario.
What boils down as important in conducting board exams is to identify whether or not a student after years of specialization is academically competent enough to be given a license to practice.
Don’t these people understand that if not for a board exam, licensing and legitimizing their skills and their profession is important?
Where is the honor there to have honestly passed an exam and be merited by a license?
Where is the dignity there if we cheated?
Nursing may not be as critical as the function of doctors but nonetheless, nurses are at the frontline of health care and though giving exams is not wholly useful to measure someone’s skills, yet it is still as important to determine whether one could entrust someone’s life with a competent nurse.
Getting the exams and passing it means you are at a certain standard and that small identification card is proof, your badge that you are at par, a symbol of honor by itself.
Cheating in the national board exams is not a new story and this has been repeatedly attempted in the past, and with this, it can’t be blamed if one now feels that several past examinations might have been rigged, fixed or leaked and no one simply found out or spoke about it.
Cheating in the examinations will now cast a cloud of doubt on the competence of nursing graduates from this country who are already abroad or about to leave the country.
Reality wise, we didn’t have an increase in enrollment in nursing schools to care for our own people, as the reality here is that more than half who enrolled in a nursing school in the last five years in among the many schools of nursing that were recently opened, all of the students are eyeing for a chance to work abroad.
The desire to earn better and more is the main driving force as to why people change career tracks and become nurses, including the doctors who claim they could earn more if they just became nurses.
Is it all about money that we become so obsessed and even consider the act of cheating?
This country is exporting labor both professionals and skilled, even including the unskilled. The local board or licensure examinations have a little impact for host countries and they would insist that our people still undergo their examination and licensure procedures.
Regardless we should say to these host nations because no exam is a threat or an obstacle if the examinee is truly competent in what he does.
Are we really producing nurses who truly care for their patients or are we just letting people take this career track for the money?
If one is truly sincere and capable in becoming a nurse then why cheat and why force oneself to become one.
As I keep telling my staff before, “We may be all be made of carbon but despite the years of intense pressure and grinding, it is no guarantee we could all become diamonds.”
Regardless if the licensure examinations our country administers have little significance to host countries, stories telling them that our people cheat in order to pass will cast an ugly impression not just for those who will be found to have cheated but also for all who came from this country. A shadow looms on the competency of our professional nurses.
It is sad that this country never learns and there are no attempts to learn or at least uphold the principles of honor in order to achieve their goals.
Stories of cheating is not new to this country!
In the last decade alone, there have been allegations that entrance exams for medical school has been rigged to favor a few, bar exams for lawyers was also allegedly manipulated, and even teacher’s professional exams were tampered and this is all for a fee.
Our great nation was also accused of cheating on the real ages of baseball players competing for, yes believe it, the Little League.
Passing off teenagers after they were “processed” to become children by virtue of changing their birth dates in order to gain upper hand to win titles and accolades in sports.
And we should not go too far when it comes to cheating, as we could always look at how we conduct elections in this country, where every election is tainted with the allegations of cheating.
“I’m sorry,” would not be acceptable to many hospitals all over the world who would be concerned with getting mediocre cheap and cheating Filipino nurses.
If we didn’t buy the, “I’m sorry,” from you know who, then the rest of the world won’t buy our “sorry” and this latest incident would tarnish whatever good name is there left about this nation and its hard working people.
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