Raymond Frias Fabronero and Paul Gibson Sepe Reyes of the University of San Carlos placed seventh with a score of 84.60.
They enter a tough job market, where an oversupply of nurses is making it difficult to find employment in hospitals here and abroad.
Many graduates end up taking temporary work as call center agents while waiting to apply for a hospital post or pursue other careers.
“They will have to be patient,” said Regional Director Susana Madarieta of the Department of Health. She said the government is recruiting registered nurses for public service to help the situation.
One-third of those who took the December 2011 national exams passed or a total of 22,760 out of 67,095, according to the Professional Regulation Commission.
(See complete list in www.inquirer.com.ph.)
A bright note for the Visayas was the performance of four schools in the region, who showed high passing rates of 80 percent or more.
The PRC’s list of Top 10 Schools included :
* Saint Paul University in Iloilo (all 50 examinees passed or 100 percent),
* Silliman University in Dumaguete (366 out of 382 or 95.81 percent),
* Remedios T. Romualdez Medical Foundation in Tacloban (203 out of 230 passed or 88.26 percent) and
* St. Scholastica’s College in Tacloban (173 out of 201 passed or 86.07 percent).
With the glut of nurses and slowdown in hiring abroad, the DOH said new professionals will have to be “patient.”
“I still say congratulations to them. Even though we have so many nurses, there are also many fortunate enough to find work in a hospital. For the others, anam-anam na nga nakalarga sa gawas like Canada,” Madarieta said.
If other opportunities for work come their way, she said, they should take it while waiting. Madarieta confirmed that many registered nurses find work as call center agents while sending out job applications or shift to other careers.
A post in a government facility remains a good option, alhtough slots are limited,she said.
The job pays P10,000 a month, a salary sourced from the national government at P8,000 while P2,000 will comes from the local government.
The rate is higher than entry pay in private hospitals at P7,000 to P8,000 a month.
Madarieta said DOH-7 will be hiring its third batch of 669 nurses for Central Visayas this March for service in government hospitals and rural health units.
About 10,000 nurses will be hired across the country under the Health Enhancement and Local Services (HEALS) program.
The contracts of the first batch hired last year ended Feb. 14, 2012.
A second batch of 900 nurses were hired in November 2011 for Region 7.
More than 3,000 nurses have applied during the DOH’s ongoing screening “so we have to stop accepting applicants,” Madarieta said.
The nursing examinations were given by the Board of Nursing in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, La Union, Legazpi, Lucena, Nueva Ecija, Pagadian, Pampanga, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga last December.
All successful candidates have to take an oath of profession before the Board or a government official and personally register and sign in the Roster of Registered Professionals, said the PRC.