Nursing Education Update: Nursing Education the Philippines will
never be the same again. Nursing, as a course in college, may no
longer be as attractive as before starting this school year. In my
post New Philippine Nursing Curriculum andOpposing Views, the
Philippine Nursing Curriculum has dramatically changed sincethe
Commission on Higher Educations issuance of CHED Memorandum Order
(MO) No. 5,series of 2008 otherwise known as Policies and Standards
for Bachelor of Sciencein Nursing Program. This CHED Memo makes BSN
a five-year course.Here in Ilocos Norte, Nursing schools have
started the implementation of CHED MOthis school year (2008-2009).
Many people (parents, students and teachers interviewed by this
author) have protested either in silence or explicit ways the
implementation of CHED MO No. 5 saying that this will only add to
the burdens of parents and benefactors of Nursing students (usually
relatives abroad).From my initial findings, the new Nursing
Curriculum in the Philippines will effect these changes: Instead of
the usual 79 units taken up by first year nursing students, the new
uidelines will require students to take up 93 units in 2,632 hours.
Additional 357 hours for hospital training or Related Learning
Experiences (RLE) which will make RLEs 2,499 hours from the
previous 2,142 hours 28 additional units or about three summers of
schoolingFor freshmen Nursing students, the Theoretical Foundation
in Nursingis included in the first semester, and Fundamentals of
Nursing Practicein the second.From a parents standpoint, these
changes have huge impacts on their familys finances and other
childrens education. Some parents I have interviewed said they
mightbe forced to sacrifice the education of some of their children
just to give way
to their child taking up BS Nursing. There is now more pressure
on the part ofthe Nursing student because family expectations have
become higher.From an educators standpoint, if CHED intended to
upgradeor improve the existing Nursing Curriculum, they should have
included in the new one some foreign language subjects (French,
German, Norwegian or Spanish). This is because the ultimategoal of
most Filipino Nurses is to go abroad and earn more money. Since
this isthe case, why shouldnt CHED include in the New Nursing
Curriculum subjects that will help our Nursing students communicate
better with foreigners speaking languages other than English? This
is perhaps an oversight on the part of our policy makers. If CHED
wanted to equip our Nursing students with new tools, it should have
been in the area of communication and NOT in the the area of
Related LearningExperiences because Nursing students have enough
RLEs. Well, thats just my take.
