CHED proposes shorter nursing programs to address shortage
MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Popoy De Vera presented on Thursday a stop-gap measure to address the shortage of nurses in the country – shorter certificate programs designed to produce hireable nursing assistants and nursing aides.
In a press conference, De Vera said that the commission’s “medium-term plan” to produce more nursing professionals is a nursing curriculum that will offer its graduates early exit credentials after a year or two years.
De Vera said that the country’s need for more nurses is “not all university graduates” and that graduates with “intermediate credentials” can benefit from these to find jobs in the field.
“This is a straight BS Nursing program with exit credentials at every level,” De Vera said.
CHED's proposed "BS Nursing Curriculum with Exit Credentials" is designed to allow nursing students to, ideally, get jobs even if they do not complete the typical four years which would give them a Bachelor’s degree.
Those that exit one year into the program can earn a "certification" for a career as a nursing aid and assistant. Graduates are expected to have "basic nursing skills in rendering safe and appropriate care utilizing the nursing process."
Those who exit during their 2nd or 3rd year, meanwhile, are expected to "demonstrate safe, appropriate and holistic care utilizing the nursing process and applying research and evidence-based practice” to patients with health problems.
CHED expects graduates of nursing diploma programs to have careers as "nursing associates, community health nurses and associate maternal and child nurses.”
De Vera also shared during the press conference that close to 20% of nursing graduates in the country do not enter the nursing profession.
"We have to do a better job of tracking where they are (because) they are already nurses and they can be hired,” De Vera said.
De Vera added that most nursing graduates who do not become nurses choose to enter the business process outsourcing industry.
Data presented by CHED show that there is around a 126,044 gap to meet the number of required nurses as benchmarked by the World Health Organization.
"Enough number of licensed nurses, but majority are either not practicing or migrant workers,” De Vera said.
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has instructed CHED to come up with solutions to the shortage of nurses in the country.
On Monday, Marcos said that the government has to be "clever about the healthcare manpower," saying that Filipino nurses remain sought after around the world.
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