Florence Folly

Somebody's got to make the tough decision - those wannabe nurses have to retake the licensing exam.

See, this is what I will definitely think if those examinees are allowed to take their oaths without a retake. I'll always be suspicious whether they really deserve to be nurses. The doubt will always remain whether they passed because they got copies of crib sheets or were treated to advance lectures by zealous mentors, or benefited from whatever else was leaked prior to the exam. There'll always be that dark ugly cloud that will follow them wherever they'll go.

Juan de la Cruz, R.N. (Really Now).

Boy, am I glad I don't have to be the one to make that decision. And apparently, like me, our president doesn't have enough strength to make this decision either. But that doesn't excuse her. Unlike her, I never ran for office and made promises about upholding truth, prosecuting evil, and all that nonsense. (Oh, wait a minute, those are in my Lawyer's Oath, I think - let me rephrase).

Ok, unlike her, I never ran for office, period. I never said I'd lead this country and make difficult decisions in the best interests of this country. That's entirely within her job description.

Unfortunately, the president still seems to be mired in a popularity crisis. For the sake of political survival, all she wants to do is keep everybody happy and stay alive until the end of her term. She doesn't want to risk an outcry like the one that will, for sure, accompany a decision for the examinees to retake the nursing licensure exam.

But here's the thing. If that decision isn't made, our educational system is put into question. Our international reputation will be shot. In fact, weren't there reports of an international exam that was relocated because this country just couldn't be trusted? There might even be other repercussions that we will not know about until we cross that bridge. Is the president willing to take that chance, and gamble our future away?

Come on, Madame Prez. End the controversy now. There's only one solution to exams that have been leaked - and that's to have the students retake them.

Now, the only argument that I've heard against the retake is the "poor" students. Those students will have to "suffer" by taking the exams again. Some of them may not have enough funds to finance another retake. Some of them were already expecting to be working by now and earning wages, giving their families the projected sustenance for the next sibling's education.

I wonder why in this country, the ultimate argument that wins in the end is always the bleeding heart one. We always fall for the underdog. Our hearts dissolve when we see tears, we take pity, and we end up looking the other way, even when we see a fraud. (Hmmm, reminds me a bit of an institution I used to teach in).

Well (and this is where I'll probably end up getting stabbed by an orderly when I next check in a hospital), as I already said, tough. Let's not allow melodrama to cloud the issue of medical professionals who don't deserve to be part of the profession. At the end of the day, there's still the risk that our lives are going to be entrusted to somebody who doesn't know how to stick that syringe up that vein (or is it artery? Ok, now you know the extent of my qualifications as a nurse).

Maybe it's time for us not to forgive and forget. For sure, that occasion will come around again in the future (like when people finally discover that I have no real writing talent whatsoever) but that time is not now. Now is the time for those in authority to put their foot down, and say, 'Enough with the clamor and the protest! There was a leak, we don't know who enjoyed the leak, and therefore all the scores will just have to be invalidated!

Of course, compassion doesn't have to disappear entirely. If the state has to support the retesting with its own funds, just to tide over the examinees, fine. There may even be other solutions that I haven't thought of, and which might be more viable, but for sure - the solution is not to let the cheaters fly away with a big wide smirk, nursing licenses in hand. All they'll do, is bring more ignominy to this country.

Please, don't give us another source of shame.