PRC: Nursing schools lack training hospitals

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) has blamed the lack of training hospitals in nursing schools for the continued deterioration of the quality of nursing education.

Eufemia Octaviano, head of PRC’s Board of Nursing, said many "mediocre" schools do not have hospitals where their nursing students can undergo training.

Because of this, the on-hand experiences of students are limited, affecting their performances when they are actually hired in hospitals.

"In some instance, 15 students would share one patient. And I don’t think there’s a patient who would want 15 people to take their blood pressure," she said in a recent forum.

The PRC expressed alarm over the decreasing passing rates in the Board of Nursing in the last 10 years.

In June 1995, 24,600 nursing graduates took the test and 61.34 percent passed. But 10 years later, there were 26,000 examinees, but the passing rate was only 49.90 percent.