NLE JUNE 2007 RESULT

48% pass nursing exams
By Leila Salaverria
Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines has more than 31,000 new nurses, including those who retook the nursing licensure examination to remove the stigma that they benefited from a leak of test questions last year.
A graduate from Our Lady of Fatima University-Valenzuela topped the exam conducted in June in Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga cities.
Of the 64,909 takers, who included first-timers, repeaters and voluntary “retakers,” 31,275 -- or 48 percent -- passed the exam given by the Professional Regulation Commission’s Board of Nursing (BON).
The voluntary “retakers” were those who had passed the June 2006 nursing board exam but decided to retake all the five tests. They signed a waiver in order to give up their 2006 licenses so they could take the tests again.
But the results of Test III (Medical-Surgical Nursing) and Test V (Psychiatric Nursing) taken by some 13,000 nursing graduates from the June 2006 batch were not announced by the PRC. The two tests were the ones affected by the leakage.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will announce the results Tuesday, according to a DOLE information officer.
The 13,000 nursing graduates, who passed the June 2006 licensure exam, voluntarily decided to retake Tests III and V in order to comply with a requirement of the United States-based Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS).
The CGFNS, which screens applicants to the United States, had said that it would not issue VisaScreen certificates to June 2006 nursing board passers unless they retook Tests III and V.
Most of the nursing graduates in the country aspire for employment in the United States.
Of the 336 nursing graduates who retook the two tests because of a court order, 248 passed, according to the PRC.
The 336 were among the 1,687 nursing graduates whom the Court of Appeals had required to retake Tests III and V.
The 1,687 graduates were those who had benefited from the PRC recomputation of the scores the commission undertook in a bid to remove the effects of the leakage. The appellate court struck down the recomputation.
The results for two examinees were withheld while the BON determines whether they were liable for violations under the rules and regulations governing licensure examinations.
Topnotcher and top schools
Darlyn Chutuape of Our Lady of Fatima University-Valenzuela got the highest score of 88 percent.
The top-performing schools with 30 to 99 examinees were University of the Philippines-Manila and Philippine Christian University-Manila, which both got a 100-percent passing rate.
Rounding out the top performers in the same category were University of Cebu in Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue, and Universidad de Manila (City College of Manila), which got passing rates of 92 and 90 percent, respectively.