Higher passing rate in nursing board logged since 2022

MANILA, Philippines — There may be no need to hire flunkers in the nursing board to fill vacancies in government-run hospitals – as planned by Health Secretary Ted Herbosa ­– with the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) posting a rising trend of nursing graduates passing the licensure examination.

Speaking at the Laging Handa public briefing yesterday, Commissioner Jose Cueto Jr. reported that the PRC has recorded a higher passing rate in the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) since last year.

Out of the 14,000 who took the test in the last two licensure examinations, Cueto noted 10,754 passed, equivalent to a 74.94 passing rate.

“Because of the pandemic, the face-to-face classes or interactions were suspended. So, (people) might have thought that the passing percentage went down because they (students) were only learning online. But, surprisingly, the November 2022 and May 2023 examinations both yielded 74 percent,” Cueto said in Filipino.

For the past six years, Cueto said, the passing rate in the NLE was only 60 percent with only 70,000 passing the exams out of 130,000 examinees.

The lowest NLE passing rate of 39 percent was recorded in 2018.

Cueto foresees the NLE passing rate increasing further with improvements in the quality of test questions.

He stressed that the PRC cannot issue temporary licenses to those who did not pass the licensure examination or failed to obtain a grade of 75 percent and score lower than 60 percent in any subject.

As provided under the law, he said, those who passed the licensure examination have the privilege to practice the profession independently.

Cueto also noted that, as Herbosa suggested, those who did not pass the exam would be supervised by registered nurses, which would mean non-violation of this provision of the law “because they are not into independent practice of the profession.”

The PRC official stressed that health care institutions are observing quality assurance and thus will not sacrifice patients’ safety and welfare.