New nursing scandal: School answers back

Florida Prof. Darren Smith bewailed the refusal of Dipolog Medical College to let new nursing grad Jennilyn Nesnia take the June board exam (Gotcha, 21 May 2007). DMC president Alberto Concha sent a lengthy reply, edited to fit this space:

“DMC is not facing closure by CHED for low passing rate. Since 1995 it has produced over a thousand nursing graduates, mostly now working abroad. It has produced more than 600 licensed nurses; 113 in 1996 alone.

“DMC is not collecting P40,000-payola for review. The fee, decided by parents and students, includes review center fee of P17,570; two months’ board and lodging of P17,500; admin, clinical instructor, miscellaneous, PRC application fees; and accident insurance. It is only for grads reviewing in Manila; those reviewing for the exam elsewhere pay higher or lower.

“Nursing grads are not prevented from taking the June 2007 exam, except those who have not complied with requirements of our school and of PRC. There were 366 BSN grads on March 30. Those who complete all requirements and submit clearances are issued Transcripts of Records after 15 days, whether or not taking the June exam. Ms. Nesnia applied for her TOR and clearance on May 3. Her TOR was released on May 10. She was allowed to attend the graduation ceremony only after signing a waiver that she ‘must complete my OR-DR cases on the immediate succeeding term, i.e., summer’. Nobody coerced her to sign; she had a choice not to attend the ceremony if she was not amenable to the terms of the waiver. She could have attended our October ceremony.

“PRC has certain requirements for a nursing graduate to qualify to take the board exam. Ms. Nesnia lacked two major Operating Room cases when she marched for graduation, for which she signed the waiver. She completed her fourth and fifth OR cases on April 2 and 3, as shown in her PRC records, obviously after the graduation on March 30. In her haste to file for the June exam at PRC, she was questioned about the discrepancy. A representative of hers came to the Dean’s office on May 15, demanding change of the dates of her duties. The Dean refused for it would amount to falsification. Since April 11 Ms Nesnia’s American boyfriend Mr. Smith kept demanding the immediate release of her TOR.

“DMC is not 12th from the bottom. The school is No. 77 of 365 Best Nursing Schools. It is gearing for PAASCU accreditation. Recently CHED honored it as a Center of IT Development in Region IX. CHED also selected it Pilot School in Region IX for Institutional Monitoring and Evaluation for Quality Assurance in Higher Education in 2006.

“While our college may not have scored well in the past two exams cited by Mr. Smith, it has scored consistently well since the first grads took the board in 1996. DMC is taking several steps to improve its rating; these are communicated to our nursing students before they enroll. They are made to sign a statement that they understand all our requirements. It is these requirements that Mr. Smith wants us to disregard in order to accommodate his girlfriend.

“DMC was never put on notice for closure, CHED-Region IX can attest. It is one of the best nursing schools in Region IX in terms of faculty (40 clinical instructors with masters degree, five with doctorates), and high-tech equipment. DMC has 30 years of experience in higher education, with 16 in the nursing program. For school year 2006-07, 1,600 students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

“It is untrue that DMC is a poor-performing school that manipulates statistics. It is next to Ateneo de Zamboanga and Western Mindanao State University in performance in Region IX. It is one of the 100 best in the country, as can be verified in CHED 2004 statistics. In 2006 it placed 102nd out of 360 schools with nursing programs.”

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Rebutting, Smith referred to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, which ran a PRC list of “low performing nursing schools with average board performance of 30-49% for the last five years (2000-04).” DMC ranked 100th, at 41 examinees per year on average and a passing rate of 39.21 percent.” DMC’s pass rate was 28 percent in June 2006, and 25 percent in Dec. 2006, he reiterated.

Meanwhile, dozens of readers reacted too. Among them, Emmanuel Decena of Florida said he had warned all senators against a bill to require all colleges to affiliate with review centers. Carmel Guzman said her son was also prevented by Centro Escolar from taking the June exam by withholding his TOR. Flaviano Sico of Cavite, with two daughters as doctors in the US and four nieces as nurses in the UK, wonders what the PRC and CHED are doing about withheld TORs. A DMC nursing senior, requesting anonymity, says the school pays for all expenses of CHED agents who come to inspect. Filipino nurse Ruth Castillo Sebastian, working and teaching in Scotland for seven years, proposes creating a body solely to regulate nursing profession and education, like Britain’s Nursing and Midwifery Council or Canada’s College of Registered Nurses. She advises grads to self-study, like she and her classmates did in their time, instead of enrolling in review centers.

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