Nursing Board Examinations Scam: Impact to Practice

The the several(prenominal)izesn Dream is in the hands of all nurses rough the humankind as the U.S. is now facing a chronic treat deficit with a projected RN dearth of to a greater extent or less 800,000 in class 2020 (Buerhaus et al., 2000). The famine of nurses that the U.S. healthc atomic number 18 private road ask to fill up collisions hundreds of railway yards as the paucity continues despite rising wages of nurses.The health c ar industry has bemoaned the c atomic number 18 for shortage for much than a decade, and that more(prenominal) than go protrude be needed for additional patients as the Baby Boom generation ages. The U.S. office of Labor Statistics projected in 2005 that more than 3.1 million registered nurse jobs would be getable by 2014, which would add an additional 700,000 unsanded jobs for nurses (Moore, 2007).The United States has ramped up its importation of abroad-trained nurses generally sourced from Africa (mainly Nigeria and South A frica), India, Canada and the Filipinos (Vujicic, 2004). U.S. hospitals and health c atomic number 18 agencies pullulate on the Filipinos because the outlandish is a former the Statesn colony with school curriculum ground on the Ameri arse educational activity organization, classes are taught in English and nurses earn a four-year bachelors degree, almosttimes more than what American nurses obtain.Thus, the discipline curve for Filipino-trained nurses in the United States is borderline (Jenkins, 2003). The Filipino nurses thrash moral philosophy is the primal reason why they comprise 83 percent of foreign nurses in America and are the most preferred by hospitals, doctors clinics and care homes accord to U.S. field Council of State control panels of breast feeding (NCSBN) (Bondoc, 2007). The Filipino Nurses Association of America (PNAA) reported that in that location are well-nigh 90,000 Filipino nurses in the United States. all(prenominal) year 12,000 to 14,000 Fil ipino nurses migrate to the U.S. (OPS, 2007).Nurses licensing interrogatoryinations is offered afield to bring more foreign-born nurses to the U.S. and jock alleviate the acute care for shortage that is crippling American health care. more or less of the foreigners taking the mandatory U.S. licensing care for test came from the Filipinos, India, Canada, Nigeria, Korea, United Kingdom and Commonwealth of States (formerly USSR) according to National Council of State panels of care for. Of those, more than fractional were from the Philippines, which educate thousand more nurses than what the democracy needs (Friess, 2002).The U.S. is a net importer of medical runination and breast feeding artals from the Philippines. The stretch out on the June 2006 care for shape up testing leak in the Philippines has snowballed, settling on a question to Filipino nurses credibility and ability in the provision of health care and precaution to American Community, not and to mo uld nurse shortage crisis in America.This newsprint discusses the important bulge out of irregularities in breast feeding get on exams. After introducing the heydayic, a preaching on the essence of care for ethical motive is do. The next section briefly presents the novel Philippine nurse Board exam to the U.S. breast feeding make out, followed by a faultfinding analysis on this screw. The summary, conclusions and recommendations are presented in the last section.In Respect to the Nursing InsigniaThe treat insignia, although it disappears, the meaning still embarks the truthful identity of the nurse in the breast feeding practice as a health care provider with sympathize with post possess noesis symbolizes by the care for cap, the crowning glory of intelligence and the same is a picture perfect of pureness and cleanliness living with ethics and morale which are molded inside the nurse school.Although the vocation of breast feeding is as ancient as medicine, a nd may encounter the greatest veracious to the Cup of Hygieia as its symbol, most of the nurse tradition use a lamp or candle, which is not wholly in repositing of Florence Nightingale, alone which represents the light of fellowship, the central symbol of quality health care.The take aim of knowledge of nursing graduates is measured by nursing lineup examsa licensure examination to eligibly practice the nursing concern. The exam regulates the legal nursing practice as a traffic by assessing the basic nursing level competency which considers the objectives of the nursing curriculum, the broad areas of nursing and new(prenominal) related disciplines and competencies.The integrity of foreign licensing systems ultimately affects the health and safety of patients in the United States, a primary consideration of CGFNS in its role in evaluating candidates at a lower place U.S. immigration law (The manila Times, 2007). refer of Philippine Nursing Board test passing waterag e to U.S. Nursing PracticeThe Philippines is the ahead(p) source of nurses to the United States, with several thousand Filipino nurses migrating there each year. However, the U.S. National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and the National Council Licensure interrogative sentence (NCLEX) delayed their approval for the Philippines accreditation as a testing center of the U.S. National equip on Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for nurses.The shelved application is caused by the direct repercussion of the nursing bestride exam leak outrage. It capped 2 hours of grilling earlier on Philippine assurances of exam security and housecleaning by and by fraud marred its own nursing board tests last June 2006 (Bondoc, 2007).The United States committal on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) cause all Filipino nurses with 2006 licenses, who wished to work in the US, to retake the devil sets of tests that investigators said were leaked to several nursing critical reappr aisal centers in Manila, the Philippine capital (Cabreza, 2007). The retake of the tests is to allow nurses who thoroughfareed the leak-tainted 2006 nursing board and are wishing to work in the United States to secure UV Visa-Screen certificates as required by the CGFNS (Rodis, 2007).The Philippines term as one of the worlds top producers of nurses could be threatened as it significantly tainted the credibility of Filipino nurses abroad due to the recent examinations irregularities. The grease allegedly knotty leakage materials of the June 2006 Philippine nursing board examinations of at to the lowest degree 200 questions. Some members of the nursing board were accused of receiving bribes from the owners of nursing review centers in exchange for leaking several(prenominal) test questions ( Asiatic peace-loving Post, 2007).Sometime after the board exam was held, the whistleblowers who centerfield-to-heart the said irregularity wrote to the mainland China in June 2006 to repor t that handwritten copies of two sets of examination were circulated among examinees who took their review at a wearicular review center during the positive examination period (Cabreza, 2007). The initial charges were made by students who said that the president of the Philippine Nurses Association, who apparently is the owner and director of a nursing review center and a nursing school, had given the exam questions to students who had interpreted his coaching classes with the final coaching at SM Cinema in Manila (The Filipino Express Newspaper, 2007).Many of the whistleblowers who exposed chess ask decided to take a new licensure test to engage the stigma of the scandal (Cabreza, 2007). Only 68.96% (9,198) turn over passed the nursing board retake out of 13,338 nurses who voluntarily retook, concluded that the quality of education is becoming a real(a) issue, peculiarly in light of the recent cheating/leak in the said board exams (Philippine day by day Inquirer, 2007 Rodi s, 2007).After the said disclosures were made, officials and industry experts cautioned that the countrys status as one of the top sources in the world for nurses would inevitably be adversely affected (Conde, 2006). In fact, this scandal has already demonstrated far-reaching impact on Filipino nursesaside from some stubborn incidents regarding racial discrimination in primetime American showsindicating that such scandal inevitably mired the entire Philippines.For one, one episode of the hit ABC series Desperate Housewives involved Teri Hatcher insulting the Filipino society when she malignly portrayed that Philippine medical schools are producing substandard, small andworseinept medical practitioners. some other is Jay Lenos similar remark on his late night show The this evening Show. Unfortunately, the above incidents gave rise to some political humors across America.A unfavourable AnalysisThe nursing board exam leak scandal in the Philippines brought legal, good and pol itical issues confronting professional nursing today, including in the U.S., as the Philippines is its prime source of custody to address the ever-escalating shortage of nurses. Better honorarium packagesor simply a wear life for the nurse and her/his familyhave been achieved nonetheless ethical and moral of standards of nurses everywhere.The Philippines has had a keen-sighted history of corruption and low standards of ethics especially in politics and business. The Philippine nursing schools fleece mills and review centers, for years, have been earning significantly, capitalizing on the nursing shorted in the developed world. In a country where cheating with impunity has turn the norm or else than the exception and where remittances from exported skilled professionals literally pass off the economy afloat, the leaks that marred the last nursing board exam and the desperate effort to preserve the examinations credibility in the wake were bound to happen.The issue of the sc andal is the issue of pathetic dreamers who damage the long-untainted credibility of the nursing institutions in the new era in spare for some cheap clams. That there was a leak in the Board of Nursing exams is nothing more than a symptom of the nations deep cancers.However, the response of the academe, the Board of Nursing, the NCLEX, the CGFNS, the hospitals, the physicians and the other professionals abroad could form part of the cure. In fact, indications are that there is a collective effort of many an(prenominal) another(prenominal) canton to do straight off address the issue. For one, the fall of the president and the vice president of the Philippine Nursing Association and the Board of Nursing would properly set the tone for reforms deep big bucks the nursing practice as nearly as in the academe.The report that some prestigious hospitals, clinics and recruitment agencies around the nut would not accept Nursing graduates from 2006 unless go were taken to ensure th at they indeed are worthy of the title of Registered Nurse, and the passage of arms being waged by deans of prestigious nursing schools to stop the Philippines Professional law cathexis from administering the professional oath to successful examinees until the issue is conciliated, all provides some sense of confide that there are still many among who refuse to allow precious nursing institution from prostituting itself.This is not an accident that this resolve has come from those involved in caring for peoples health. It reflects a sentiment now sweep across the country and other pertain countries among health professionals. It has little to do with dollar remittances and the promise of a good life.Hence, this involvement to preserve the integrity and credibility of the nursing board exam is much more than that. It goes beyond making sure that the nurses who aid in the operating room or administer medicines to patients dont end up doing harm, although this is a big part of the issue. The battle is still a part of a bigger struggle to restore decency, integrity, and honor in country long-plagued by political dissymmetry and economic woes.The nursing insignia is being take of its cleanliness and purity of morale and intelligence. The white reproducible is being stained with the filth of deception and devious acts of betrayal to the nursing profession as the profession of cleanliness and purity. The light of knowledge taught by nursing schools has been diminished with phantom and blindness in the search for greener pastures.The real oppression is to the successful examinees who did not cheat, the hardships should not been paved with shame expert because they are being called to participate in something beyond themselves. The only way cheating can be avoided in the future would be if those investigating the leak could pin localise those who benefited from them and have only these persons retake the subjects. Needless to say, the perpetrators esse ntial be punished.It was Gandhi who said that our values become our destiny. What go forth happen to the destiny of those nurses with prejudice values and what go away happen if those nurses will hold the health of the American community? What will be the destiny of the American health care system if the healthcare providers credibility remains a big question?The nursing exam scandal is an opportunity to rediscover and reclaim the values that have been oblige to be denied and even discarded proficient for the sake of surviving. This unfortunate scandal can, however, provoke to be one of the greatest blessings for this nation, because it expertness finally drive home the point that there can be no true progress and success unless they have their hearts in the right place. diagnose it a counterculture of sorts, or simply a natural reaction to anything in excess. barely the fact is that all over the Philippines, doctors, nurses and other health professionals are starting to o bey the call to be more than just healers. There is a growing realization that Filipino nurses must use their professions to care begin a revolution of the heart from the bottom up. It might be the only way to eventually force certain change at the top.Summary, Conclusions & RecommendationsThe American Dream, the air castle of greener pasture in the land of milk and honey, has driven the perpetuators to commit the crime against nursing profession and the morality. The opportunities brought about by nursing shortage and nursing exodus has force the nursing system failures.The quality of nursing education is becoming the real issue as there are 460 nursing schools in the Philippines and 50 of which have already been ordered by the Professional Regulation Commission of the Philippines to be closed down as nothing more than diploma mills (Rodis, 2007). The exam fraud was but a part of the bigger task of nursing.And there is also the issue of measly education. Schools, cashing in on a freshet of enrolments from news of a nurse shortage in America, were churning out around 80,000 graduates per year. But only 32,000 or so are able to pass the board test, and only 2,000 easily get jobs in top hospitals (Bondoc, 2007). The nursing shortage is not the number one problem in America, but if one takes a close look, this may arise to a greater problem of hiring half-baked nurses.The illicit chuck out of exam questions in the Philippines is an indication of deeper problems plaguing the Philippine health care system. Desperate to pass the nursing exam and work abroad, many students easily fall victim to such scams. Diploma mill nursing schools and review centers have exploited this desperation and will do anything to compete for more students and more profits. In the end, the quality of nursing education, profession and the whole health care system suffers.Nurses in the United States involved directly or indirectly in the recruitment of nurses from the Philippines s hould consider only candidates with a minimal two- to three-year work experience and completely intermit from hiring fresh graduates. By doing so, the Filipino nursing community in the United States would overhaul ensure the continued flow of only qualified and well-trained professionals into the American healthcare system.ReferencesAsian Pacific Post. (2007). Filipino Nurses Exam Scandal.Bondoc, J. (2007). NCLEX in Manila Open by Mid-Year. ABS-CBN Interactive.Buerhaus, P.I., Staiger, D.O. & Auerbach, D.I. (2000). Implications of an senescence Registered Nurse Workforce. Journal of the American checkup Association, 283, 29482954.Cabreza, V. (2007). Whistleblowers in 2006 Nursing Test Leak Take New Exams. Philippine Daily Inquirer.Conde, C.H. (2006). 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