Nursing Board Examinations Scam: Impact to Practice

The American Dream is in the hands of all nurses or so the globe as the U.S. is now facing a chronic treat dearth with a projected RN shortage of to a greater extent or less 800,000 in year 2020 (Buerhaus et al., 2000). The shortage of nurses that the U.S. healthc atomic number 18 industry need to fill up hits hundreds of thousands as the shortage continues despite rising requital of nurses.The health c atomic number 18 industry has bemoaned the treat shortage for more than a decade, and that more allow be needed for surplus patients as the featherbed Boom generation ages. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected in 2005 that more than 3.1 million registered nurse jobs would be available by 2014, which would add an additional 700,000 new jobs for nurses (Moore, 2007).The United argonas has ramped up its importation of foreign-trained nurses mainly rised from Africa (mainly Nigeria and South Africa), India, Canada and the Filipinos (Vujicic, 2004). U.S. hospitals a nd health care agencies choose the Philippines because the province is a former American dep destroyence with school curriculum based on the American education carcass, classes are taught in English and nurses earn a four-year bachelors degree, sometimes more than what American nurses obtain.Thus, the learning curve for Philippine-trained nurses in the United States is minimal (Jenkins, 2003). The Filipino nurses get to morals is the primary reason why they comprise 83 pct of foreign nurses in America and are the most preferred by hospitals, doctors clinics and care homes according to U.S. National Council of State come ons of treat (NCSBN) (Bondoc, 2007). The Philippine Nurses companionship of America (PNAA) reported that at that place are around 90,000 Filipino nurses in the United States. Every year 12,000 to 14,000 Filipino nurses migrate to the U.S. (OPS, 2007).Nurses licensing trials is offered abroad to set ashore more foreign-born nurses to the U.S. and help allev iate the acute treat shortage that is crippling American health care. Most of the foreigners taking the mandatory U.S. licensing care for examen came from the Philippines, India, Canada, Nigeria, Korea, United Kingdom and Commonwealth of States (formerly USSR) according to National Council of State posters of care for. Of those, more than half were from the Philippines, which educate thousand more nurses than what the country needfully (Friess, 2002).The U.S. is a net importer of medical and breast feeding professionals from the Philippines. The bring on on the June 2006 nurse carte du jour exam leak in the Philippines has snowballed, settling on a query to Filipino nurses credibility and ability in the provision of health care and safety to American Community, non lone(prenominal) to solve treat shortage crisis in America.This paper discusses the important issue of irregularities in treat get on with exams. After introducing the topic, a discussion on the essence of breast feeding ethics is made. The next section briefly presents the recent Philippine breast feeding Board exam to the U.S. breast feeding radiation diagram, followed by a critical abbreviation on this issue. 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 true identity of the nurse in the nursing practice as a health care provider with caring attitude possess knowledge symbolizes by the nursing cap, the crown glory of intelligence and the uniform is a picture perfect of goodness and cleanliness living with ethics and morale which are molded inside the nursing school.Although the profession of nursing is as ancient as medicine, and may arouse the grea examen right to the Cup of Hygieia as its symbol, most of the nursing customs use a lamp or candle, which is non only in reposition of Florence Nightingale, but which represents the light o f knowledge, the central emblem of quality health care.The direct of knowledge of nursing graduates is mea certaind by nursing board examsa licensure examination to eligibly practice the nursing profession. The exam regulates the legal nursing practice as a profession by assessing the basic nursing train competency which considers the objectives of the nursing curriculum, the broad areas of nursing and former(a) related disciplines and competencies.The unity 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 under U.S. in-migration law (The manila paper Times, 2007).Impact of Philippine Nursing Board interrogation Leakage to U.S. Nursing PracticeThe Philippines is the leading source of nurses to the United States, with several(prenominal) thousand Filipino nurses migrating there each year. However, the U.S. National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN ) and the National Council Licensure trialination (NCLEX) delayed their approval for the Philippines accreditation as a interrogatory center of the U.S. National Commission on Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for nurses.The shelved application is caused by the direct repercussion of the nursing board exam leak indignation. It crest two hours of grilling earlier on Philippine assurances of exam certification and housecleaning after fraud marred its own nursing board tests last June 2006 (Bondoc, 2007).The United States Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) induce all Filipino nurses with 2006 licenses, who wished to work in the US, to recapture the two sets of tests that investigators express were leaked to several nursing freshen up centers in manila, the Philippine capital (Cabreza, 2007). The retake of the tests is to allow nurses who protracted the leak-tainted 2006 nursing board and are wishing to work in the United States to secure UV Visa-Screen ce rtificates as required by the CGFNS (Rodis, 2007).The Philippines shape as bingle of the worlds top producers of nurses could be jeopardise as it significantly tainted the credibility of Filipino nurses abroad collectible to the recent examinations irregularities. The scandal allegedly involved leakage materials of the June 2006 Philippine nursing board examinations of at least 200 wonders. Some members of the nursing board were accused of receiving bribes from the owners of nursing review centers in exchange for leaking some test questions (Asian Pacific Post, 2007).Sometime after the board exam was held, the whistleblowers who exposed the express irregularity wrote to the PRC in June 2006 to report that handwritten copies of two sets of examination were circulated among examinees who took their review at a particular review center during the material examination period (Cabreza, 2007). The initial charges were made by students who tell that the chairperson of the Philippi ne 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 taken his coach classes with the final coaching at SM Cinema in Manila (The Filipino shew sensitivespaper, 2007).Many of the whistleblowers who exposed cheating maintain obdurate to take a new licensure test to remove the stigma of the scandal (Cabreza, 2007). Only 68.96% (9,198) substantiate passed the nursing board retake out of 13,338 nurses who voluntarily retook, concluded that the quality of education is becoming a real issue, in particular in light of the recent cheating/leak in the said board exams (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2007 Rodis, 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 im pact on Filipino nursesaside from some untoward incidents regarding racial discrimination in primetime American showsindicating that such scandal inevitably involved the entire Philippines.For one, one episode of the hit ABC series Desperate Housewives involved Teri Hatcher scornful the Filipino residential area when she malignly depicted that Philippine medical schools are producing substandard, modest andworseinept medical practitioners. Another is Jay Lenos similar stimulus on his late night show The Tonight Show. Unfortunately, the in a higher place incidents gave rise to some political humors across America.A Critical abstractThe nursing board exam leak scandal in the Philippines brought legal, respectable and political issues confronting professional nursing today, including in the U.S., as the Philippines is its prime source of manpower to address the ever-escalating shortage of nurses. Better compensation packagesor but a better life for the nurse and her/his familyh ave been achieved notwithstanding honest and moral of standards of nurses everywhere.The Philippines has had a long history of corruption and low standards of ethics especially in politics and business. The Philippine nursing schools diploma mill around 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 become the norm rather than the exclusion and where remittances from exported skilled professionals literally keep the economy afloat, the leaks that marred the last nursing board exam and the desperate effort to preserve the examinations credibility in the aftermath were bound to happen.The issue of the scandal is the issue of pathetic dreamers who disparage the long-untainted credibility of the nursing institutions in the new era in wasted for some cheap dollars. That there was a leak in the Board of Nursing exams is nothing more than a symptom of the nations deep cancers.However, the chemical reaction 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 quarters to do directly address the issue. For one, the resignation of the president and the vice president of the Philippine Nursing Association and the Board of Nursing would properly set the dance step for reforms within the nursing practice as well as in the academe.The report that some esteemed hospitals, clinics and recruitment agencies around the globe would not accept Nursing graduates from 2006 unless steps were taken to ensure that they indeed are worthy of the title of Registered Nurse, and the battle beingness waged by deans of prestigious nursing schools to stop the Philippines Professional Regulation Commission from administering the professional reprobation to successful examinees until the issue is res olved, all provides some sense of hope 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 sweeping across the country and other concerned countries among health professionals. It has little to do with dollar remittances and the betoken of a good life.Hence, this battle 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 assist 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 but a part of a bigger struggle to restore decency, integrity, and honor in country long-plagued by political instability and economic woes.The nursing insignia is being deprived of its cleanliness and purity of morale and intelligence. The white uniform is being stained with the filth of dishonesty 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 tincture 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 just because they are being called to insert in something beyond themselves. The only way cheating can be avoided in the future would be if those investigating the leak could pinpoint those who benefited from them and have only these persons retake the subjects. Needless to say, the perpetrators must be punished.It was Gandhi who said that our value become our destiny. What will happen to the destiny of those nurses with prejudiced value and what will 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 health care providers credibility remains a big question?The nursing exam scandal is an opportunity to rediscover and reclaim the values that have been forced to be denied and even discardedjust for the rice beer of surviving. This unfortunate scandal can, however, prove to be one of the greatest blessings for this nation, because it energy finally drive home the point that there can be no true progress and success unless they have their hearts in the right place. Call it a counterculture of sorts, or simply a inhering reaction to anything in excess.But the fact is that all over the Philippines, doctors, nurses and other health professionals are starting to heed the call to be more than just healers. There is a growing realization that Filipino nurses must use their professions to help begin a revolution of the heart from the shadow up. It might be the only way to eventually force existent change at the top.Summary, Conclusions & RecommendationsThe American Dream, the reverie of greene r pasture in the the three estates of milk and honey, has driven the perpetuators to commit the crime against nursing profession and the morality. The opportunities brought around by nursing shortage and nursing exodus has forced 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 mill about (Rodis, 2007). The exam fraud was but a part of the bigger job of nursing.And there is also the issue of poor education. Schools, cashing in on a surge of enrolments from news of a nurse shortage in America, were steamed 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 bother in America, but if one takes a c loser look, this may repeal to a greater problem of hiring half-baked nurses.The illicit release 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 dupe to such scams. Diploma mill nursing schools and review centers have used 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 should consider only candidates with a minimum two- to three-year work ascertain and completely desist from hiring fresh graduates. By doing so, the Filipino nursing community in the United States would help ensure the continued flow of only qualified and well-trained professionals into the American healthcare system.ReferencesAs ian 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 Aging Registered Nurse Workforce. daybook of the American Medical Association, 283, 29482954.Cabreza, V. (2007). Whistleblowers in 2006 Nursing Test Leak manoeuvre New Exams. Philippine Daily Inquirer.Conde, C.H. (2006). Cheating on Exam Taints stand of Philippine nurses. International Herald Tribune Asia Pacific.Philippine Daily Inquirer. (2007). Results of June 06 Nursing Board Retake Out.Friess, S. (2002). U.S. Looks Abroad for Nurses. USA Today.Jenkins, C. (2003). Filipino Nurses Make a New Life in a New Place. St. Petersburg Times.Moore, J.L. (2007). 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