Nurses hit scrapping of rites
The decision of the Professional Regulation Commission’s (PRC) Board of Nursing to scrap the mass oath-taking rites for newly registered nurses starting this year is not sitting well with the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA).
PNA national president Teresita Barcelo on Monday said the move to cancel the mass oath-taking ceremony next month may be too late for the oath-takers’ parents, mostly working overseas, who have already taken their leave from work to attend the event.
“It would be OK if it was announced earlier because now many parents and relatives of the oath-takers are anticipating the oath-taking and some are even coming home from abroad for that event,” Barcelo said in a phone interview.
She said the PNA wrote the PRC last Thursday after being informed of its decision, appealing that it push through with the ceremony, at least this time.
The association has even offered to sponsor the event just to see it push through on Sept. 25-26.
The PNA asked the commission to implement its decision starting in December, when the next board exam for nurses will be given, so that everyone would be informed early.
She said that last month the association reserved a venue for the oath-taking, which 14,000 to 15,000 board passers are expected to attend. At least 37,500 of 78,135 examinees passed.
“We could still hold the mass oath-taking and we could simplify it,” she said, stressing the importance of giving recognition to the exam topnotchers and to the schools that are doing well.
The Department of Labor and Employment on Sunday announced that the PRC’s Board of Nursing had decided to do away with the mass oath-taking to spare the government from the expenses “relevant to the holding of the traditional mass oath-taking.”
The announcement said it would help the families of the board passers save money as well.
But Barcelo said the event had always been a “self-liquidating activity,” in which not a single centavo came from the government. “The government does not spend for the occasion,” she said.
Not mandatory, board passers who choose to attend the mass oath-taking ceremony pay P250 to P350 for their guests.
She added that conducting the oath-taking either individually or by group during registration for nursing licenses with the PRC would be “inefficient” and “time-consuming” considering the almost 40,000 who passed the exam.
“This sends the wrong signal… it looks like they are discouraging these board passers not to be nurses anymore,” she said.
