The results of the November 2009 Nursing Licensure Exams were released a few days ago. As expected, issues on the quality of nursing education was on the limelight once again. There are a lot of things to say about this issue. Now, where do I begin?

Here are the NLE passing rates from June 2007 until November 2009

  • 48.18% passed the June 2007 NLE. There were 64,909 test takers.
  • The December 2007 NLE had 42.70 % passing rate.
  • Only 43.07 % passed the June 2008 board exams.
  • In November of the same year, the passing rate went down to 44.51 %
  • Last June 2009, the NLE passing rate was 41.87%
  • The recent board exam has the lowest  passing rate among the past 5 licensure examinations. 39.73% of test takers passed the NLE. Out of 94,462 examinees, only 37, 527 passed the exam. This examination cycle also has highest number of examinees.

If these numbers are to represent the quality of nursing education in our country, it wouldn’t take a genius to see where the future of the nursing profession is heading. It’s sad but more than sad, it is shameful. It’s disgusting to think that instead of improving, the nursing education is deteriorating.

What the NLE is all about

The NLE measures only the minimum competencies of a nursing student. A license can make you a nurse but it won’t make you a good one. If our nursing schools can’t help their students pass the NLE that only measures the students’ basic skills and knowledge, how can we expect these nursing schools to produce competent nurses?

The licensure exam is hard but it shouldn’t get the results that it got for the past examination seasons. The topics covered in the examination are topics that have been and should have been discussed fully in nursing schools. The BON wouldn’t include these concepts if they don’t deemed them necessary.

Who to blame

It’s easy to point fingers on people or institutions that should be held responsible for the failure of many students on the board exam. Most people would blame the incompetent nursing schools, some would blame the ineffective review centers, still others would point the blame to students who did not study hard and prepared well for the exam. But really, whose fault is it?

To answer this question means to evaluate every single aspect that affect the students’ performances.

Nursing as a Way Out

For most Filipino families, nursing has always been a way out to poverty. Sons and daughters who are never interested with nursing are forced to take the course because their parents want them to. In most cases, these students belong to the group who does not perform well in school. How many times have we heard this common excuse ” Eh pinilit lang naman ako magnursing. Hindi ko naman ‘to gusto (I was just forced to take up nursing. I really don’t like this.)”.

One of my professor said that Nursing is a noble profession. While it is, it also pays well. This is why it’s so easy for most of us to decide to take nursing. It’s the promise of a greater pay that attracts most students to the course.

This becomes a problem when a student really is not fit to become a nurse. The course will tie you down to a place where you shouldn’t be. It will be more like a prison than a way out.  If you don’t have the heart for nursing, you will be one of the many nursing graduates who are just that – graduates.

Nursing as a Business

Nursing is profitable not only for nurses but for the business industry. Because there are so many nursing students, nursing schools sprouted like mushrooms. There are too many nursing schools, but very few are competent to teach nursing.

Learning starts from school. If a school can’t give their students with quality education, these students will find it hard to pass the NLE.

Today, there are no strict regulations when it comes to evaluating nursing schools. There have been talks about closing down non-performing nursing schools. It had been said that when a nursing school consecutively fails (3 consecutive examinations) to meet the cut-off passing rate, which I think (correct me if I’m wrong) is 40% , it will be shut down by CHED.

I don’t know if this has ever been done or if it will ever be done but CHED has a serious problem in their midst. If these non-performing schools will continue to operate, they will continue to produce nursing graduates that are not equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to become a nurse, not even to at least pass the NLE.

A Personal Note

Nursing schools will give you the chance to learn but if you don’t exhaust that chance, no matter how good your school is, you will never get anything from it. Review centers help you to recall concepts and teach you helpful test taking strategies. They are centers for RE-viewing, a second view of concepts you’ve already seen and studied in your 4 years of college. If you don’t have anything to look back on or remember, you don’t need a review center. You need a new nursing school.

I wish I can say that I come from one of the top nursing schools in the country but I don’t. I wish I can say that it was my love and interest for the profession that made me take it but that’s not true. All I have with me is that license to practice as a nurse and it remained just that- A license. The opportunity to use it remains as an opportunity.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we can put the blame to everyone or everything we think is at fault for the deterioration of the quality of our nursing education but at the end of it all, the responsibility to pass the NLE and become qualified nurses lies heavily on each one of us.

Calvin Coolidge once said:

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

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