The Commission on Higher Education, or CHEd, is urging registered nurses to take up a master's degree as the government will be giving postgraduate scholarships to address the lack of qualified teachers in nursing schools.

"We will also give a scholarship to faculty members who want to teach in the nursing schools," CHEd chairperson Prospero de Vera III said in a TV interview.

"We also need to give immediate attention to increasing the number of qualified faculty members in our nursing schools," De Vera added.

Just recently, the CHEd launched the hybrid master's program or short-term master's program that recognizes prior professional experience to speed up the acquisition of a master's degree by those who want to teach in a university or a nursing school.

"One thing we are studying is whether our best universities can offer a hybrid master's program that will cover not just the academic portion of the program, but will also credit the prior professional experience of our teachers," De Vera said.

"Like for example, if we can credit the professional practice of our nurses who want to teach in nursing schools so that they don't have to repeat all the subjects to shorten the master's program with the same quality assurance to increase the number of faculty and enrollment," he added.

De Vera said nurses who want to teach in nursing schools should have a master's degree for them to become permanent faculty.

He said they are now finalizing the implementation of the hybrid master's program.

"We are targeting to offer it in the next school year," the CHEd chief added.