To help address the country’s nurse shortage, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is now “retooling” non-board passers and tapping non-practicing nurse graduates.
CHED Chairperson Prospero de Vera III said they are also conducting exchange programs with other countries and adopting a nursing curriculum with exit credentials to increase the country’s pool of available nurses.
“Under the nursing curriculum with exit credentials, students could have several options: exit at the end of Level I or II, obtain the certificate or diploma in Nursing, or choose to continue and finish the four-year nursing program to become a registered nurse,” de Vera explained.
He said they are also trying to increase the number of instructors in nursing and medical schools by coming out with a flexible short-term masteral program for those who want to teach in the said educational institutions.
De Vera discussed the said measures after being ordered by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to address the shortage during a meeting with the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) Health-care Sector last Wednesday.
“We have to be clever about the health-care manpower. Our nurses are the best, and we are competing with the entire world to keep them,” Marcos said.
“Lahat ng nakakausap kong President, Prime Minister, ang hinihingi is more nurses from the Philippines [All of the President, Prime Minister, whom I talked to are asking for more nurses from the Philippines],” he added.
He noted many Filipino nurses are opting to work abroad because of higher pay in other countries.
The government imposed a deployment cap for nurses and other medical professionals at the onset of the pandemic to ensure the country will have a sufficient number of health care workers.
The deployment cap is currently at 7,500 this year.
