The Commission on Higher Education lifted on Wednesday, July 13, the moratorium on nursing programs implemented in 2011 due to the “oversupply” of nursing graduates.
CHED Chairperson Prospero De Vera said the moratorium was lifted due to the shortage of nurses and healthcare workers in the country.
“We do need a lot of nurses, we do need nursing items in the Department of Health, local government units, and what has not been factored here is the demand of the many nurses that the pay in nursing profession is not that high, and many of our nurses go overseas to work,” De Vera said.
According to CHED, there are six regions in the country that are currently in need of nursing courses in the higher education institutions (HEIs), including Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas, Caraga, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Cordillera Administrative Region, and Soccsksargen.
However, de Vera said CHED will be “stern” on the approval of HEIs that will be offering nursing courses to avoid compromising their students from low quality education.
It was in 2011 that the nursing licensure exam drop-off its passing rate due to the low-quality education of the HEIs.
Meanwhile, De Vera said that there are requirements for HEIs who will file for application before offering nursing programs in their institutions and accepting students.
De Vera said that one of the requirements upon application is that each institution should have a “return service agreement” in order to have sufficient nurses and healthcare workers in their respective regions.
He also added that institutions that will file for accreditation should have nursing skills laboratory and library resources, as well as a level 3 Department of Health-accredited facilities where they will hold the student’s training.
“Unless they have base hospitals, we cannot allow them to open their nursing programs because their students will not have a place to train,” De Vera said.
“We cannot compromise the base hospitals kapag hindi nakapag train ang estudyante mo, they will not become good nurses,” he added. –Report from Kenneth Paciente/KC – gb