CGFNS ban due to penchant for quick fix

Senator Richard Gordon expressed his disappointment with the decision of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) to ban all the nurses who passed the cheating-tainted June 2006 nursing licensure examination from working in the United States.

“I am saddened by the plight of these 17,000 nurses. I feel for them. However this is one of the consequences of our failure to attain closure on any issue and of our penchant for going for the quick fix,” said Gordon.

When allegations of cheating first came out last year, Gordon espoused the retake of the parts of the exam affected by the leakage in order to restore the credibility of the said batch of nurses. He said that the retake of Tests III and V would have resolved all doubts as to the competence and qualifications of the June 2006 board passers.

“This is precisely the situation that I wanted to prevent by asking for the nullification of the results of the June 2006 nursing board exams after investigations conducted by both the NBI and the Senate Committee on Civil Service. We knew from the start that if we didn’t repair the damage done to the credibility and integrity of our licensure exams, it would be highly probable that our nurses would have difficulty in finding opportunity for work abroad,” explained Gordon.

The CGFNS came out with its decision to bar the June 2006 board examinees from VisaScreen Certificate last February 14, 2007.

"We cannot really blame the US-CGFNS for trying to protect the health and safety of its citizens. Besides, the bar is not final. The June 2006 board passers can overcome the bar by choosing to retake tests III and V on a future licensing examination administered by Philippine regulatory authorities and obtaining a passing score. Once they pass, then they will be eligible for the VisaScreen Certificate," stated the Senator.

Gordon also said that the root cause of the problem, as disclosed during the Senate hearings, was our inability to correct our errors. We refuse to take responsibility for our own mistakes. Anywhere else in the world, an exam leakage is a possibility, our grave error was our failure to promptly correct it. The world can make room for errors for as long as those who make them are willing to correct them.