CHEd rolls out nursing review for non-passers

The Commission on Higher Education will offer review classes to nursing graduates who failed to pass the licensure examination and are now working in hospitals as nursing aides.

CHEd chairperson Prospero de Vera III said they have developed a review program for those who failed the board exam as a medium-term intervention to address the shortage of registered nurses in the country.

"We are now matching hospitals and good schools to provide the review classes," De Vera told DAILY TRIBUNE. "We will start this year targeting the November licensure test."

Top universities have been tapped by CHEd to provide the review classes. "You don't have to wait four years. You can produce new nurses in one year," he said.

The hospitals will identify their nursing aides who would be trained by the schools, De Vera said, adding that the review modules were ready.

He said they were looking for funding for the undertaking.

"We will target its implementation by the first quarter of 2024. The target is for the first batch of reviewers to take the November nursing board exam. Hopefully, many will pass the licensure test," he said.

Likewise, De Vera revealed that CHEd has developed a clinical care associate diploma program, wherein those who have studied nursing will be assessed and hired by the hospitals as clinical care associates after one year.

"They (clinical care associates) will be the support system for the nurses, so the nurses can focus on patient care," he said.

Meanwhile, the CHEd has lifted the ban on new nursing programs after a moratorium in 2010. De Vera said at least 54 universities have applied for a nursing program.

"They are being evaluated and the others have been opened. However, these 54 schools can only produce new nursing graduates by 2028," the CHEd chief said.

"I told the President [Ferdinand Marcos Jr.] that we cannot wait for 2028. We need medium-term intervention," he added.