Mylot - $121.38
Neobux - $7.00
Mturk - $24.14
Ceoads - $2+
Katrina Halili Pregnant - $44+
Advpoints - $1+
Nomincashout - $0.50+
Dfile - $60+
Hfile - $1000+
Sharedimages $25+
Lbucks $10+
Vcinvestgroup - $0.50+
(Note: This is only a tally of the programs that already paid me. This does not mean that all of them are worth joining. I won't recommend ceoads, advpoints, sharedimages, and nomincashout for you. Ciao already closed and Mturk is not available to every country.)
MANILA, Philippines – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has announced that the government would hire unemployed nurses to become "warriors of wellness" in poverty-stricken areas.
The Nurses Assigned in Rural Areas (NARS) program, which the President launched Monday, will deploy five nurses in each of the 1,000 poorest municipalities. Each nurse can have two six-month tours of duty and will be paid an allowance of P8,000 per month, the President said.
The President said the government would spend "less than" P500 million for the program. She urged municipal mayors to pitch in P2,000 as their "counterpart" allowance for each of the nurses.
"We are launching NARS, or nurses assigned in rural areas... They shall be mobilized in their home towns, these warriors for wellness shall do three I's," she said in a speech during a jobs summit at the Palace.
The "three I's" are: "initiate" health and nutrition programs and first line diagnosis, "inform" communities about water sanitation and health surveillance, and "immunize" children and their mothers.
Arroyo said nurses who lack experience would find it hard to get jobs in hospitals here and abroad.
"They shall also serve as roving nurses for rural schools," she added.
“WHEN you decide to become a nurse, there should be a passion to serve and to care,” said Aira Therese Salamanca Javier of the University of Santo Tamos (UST), who topped the recent Board of Nursing exams of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) with a rating of 86 percent.
She said that going abroad should not be the primary motivation to pursue a career in nursing.
Asked to comment on the controversial leakage of the nursing board exams in the past, she stressed that nurses should always stand for integrity and honesty because they’re dealing with people’s lives.
Javier topped the board exams out of 64,459 students who took it. She was a UST scholar for four years.
MANILA, Philippines -- Despite the global economic meltdown that has hit the United States hard, with some 2.6 million Americans losing their jobs in the last 12 months, 20,746 Filipino nurses took the US licensure examination for the first time last year, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said Saturday.
In a statement, former Senator and TUCP secretary general Ernesto Herrera said the 20,746 represents a decline of 3.5 percent, or 753 fewer compared to the 21,499 Filipino nurses that took the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) administered by the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (USNCSBN) for the first time in 2007.
The 20,746 also brought to 66,597 the total number of Filipino nurses that indicated their desire to enter the US nursing profession by taking the NCLEX for the first time since 2005, according to Herrera, former chairman of the Senate labor, employment and human resources development committee.
Citing USNCSBN statistics, Herrera said a total of 9,181 Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time in 2005; 15,171 in 2006; and 21,499 in 2007.
Herrera said the slight decrease in the number of Filipino nurses that took the NCLEX for the first time in 2008 "does not necessarily suggest a trend."
"It is too early to say whether there is a downtrend, considering the drop was marginal, and came after huge increases of 65 percent in 2006 and 42 percent in 2007," he pointed out.
"Based on the initial feedback that we got from the NCLEX testing center here in Manila, which opened only in August 2007, there is a long waiting period before nurses can actually take the test. This is because so many have already lined up to take the test, and the center can only accommodate so many takers at a time," Herrera added.
Herrera earlier said only the healthcare and education sectors in the US are actually creating new jobs, and that the rest of that country's economic segments are either reducing personnel, or have ceased hiring.
But on Friday, even one of the world's largest pharmaceutical firms, New York City-based Pfizer Inc., said it was laying off a third of its 8,000 sales staff in the US, and eliminating 800 research positions.
Herrera, meanwhile, urged Filipino nurses that have been recruited by American employers or their Philippine agencies to get hold of the "Voluntary Code for the Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Nurses to the United States."
"The document, available online, is a must-read for every Filipino nurse planning to work in America," he said.
Herrera said the code essentially binds subscribers, including recruiters and employers, to minimum ethical standards in order to discourage abuses and to prevent the exploitation and discrimination of Filipino and other foreign-educated nurses in the US.
Based on Board Exam passing rates for 2000-2004 only 12 of the 175 Nursing schools had passing rates of 90% or higher. RANK SCHOOL OVERALL % Passing Rate
1 UP-Manila 100% 2 St. Paul College-Iloilo 99.57% 3 Silliman University - Dumaguete City 98.39 4 West Visayas State University 97.06% 5 University of Santo Tomas Manila 96.67% 6 Saint Louis University - Baguio City 95.05 7 Mindanao State University Marawi City 95.0% 8 St. Paul College-Dumaguete City 93.38 9 Pamantasan ng Lunsod ng Maynila 92.53% 10 SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY - Bayombong 91.02% 11 St. Paul College-Manila 90.81% 12 University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Center 90.57%
June 11-12, 2006: The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) conducted the nationwide Nursing Licensure Examination. Days later, reports that a leakage of actual test questions circulated.
June 21, 2006: A group of Nursing Board examinees filed a complaint against members of the Board of Nursing (BON) and Ray Gapuz, owner of the Gapuz Review Center. The PRC created an independent fact-finding committee to inquire into the alleged controversy.
After conducting its investigation, the committee found that a nursing exam leakage did occur. The test question manuscripts of BON members Virginia Madeja and Anesia Dionisio for Test III and Test V were copied and distributed to the reviewees of the Gapuz Review Center and INRESS before the actual examination dates.
July 17, 2006: The BON adopted Resolution No. 31 invalidating 20 items of Test III and re-computing the scores in Test V. As such, those who took the June 2006 examination would no longer be required to retake parts of the exam.
July 26, 2006: In an open letter, UST College of Nursing Faculty Association president Rene Luis Tadle's group filed an open letter, requested the PRC to defer the oathtaking of those who passed the nursing exams.
August 15, 2006: PRC and BON announced that they will proceed with the oathtaking of examinees who passed based on the recomputed scheme.
August 16, 2006: Tadle et al. asked the Court of Appeals to stop the PRC from implementing Resolution No. 31 and from allowing those who passed the June 2006 examinations based on the recomputed scores to take their oaths as nurses.
August 18, 2006: The Court of Appeals issued a temporary restraining order, preventing the PRC from enforcing Resolution No. 31 and proceeding with the oathtaking scheduled on August 22, 2006.
August 23, 2006: The Presidential Task Force on National Licensure Examination chaired by Dante Ang filed a petition in intervention, asking for a retake of Test III and Test V.
August 28, 2006: President Arroyo ordered the PRC to implement a revamp of the six-member Board of Nursing in view of the nursing exam leakage controversy.
September 27, 2006: In a press conference, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita disclosed that President Arroyo favors a nursing exam retake, but that she is leaving it up to the Department of Labor and Employment and the PRC to figure out how to proceed with it.
October 13, 2006: The Court of Appeals declared Resolution No. 31 null and void and ordered the PRC to conduct a selective retake of the nursing licensure exam among those whose names have were merely added to the list of successful examinees. CA also ruled that the successful examinees may take their oaths and get their licenses.
October 26, 2006: The Court of Appeals ruled that there was "no legal impediment" for the successful examinees of the June 2006 nursing exam to be sworn in.
February 14, 2007: The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS International) announced on its website that it has decided to deny VisaScreen certificates for Filipino nurses who obtained licensure on the basis of passing the June 2006 nursing licensure examination.
CGFNS said it is unable to certify that the licensure is comparable to a US license.
CGFNS however noted that the June 2006 passers can overcome this bar and qualify for a VisaScreen certificate by taking and passing the equivalent of Tests 3 and 5 on a future licensing examination administered by PRC.
February 16, 2007: President Macapagal Arroyo ordered the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to appeal the CGFNS decision.
February 19, 2007: A government-private sector task force was formed to make an appeal to CGFNS. The task force, headed by PRC chairwoman Leonor Rosero, was formed after a meeting between the PRC and nursing groups in Manila.
February 24, 2007: In a statement posted on the DOLE website, he said DOLE will offer the voluntary retake of Test 3 and 5 of the June 2006 Nursing Exam.
February 25, 2007: Labor Secretary Arturo Brion told said the CGFNS talked to him Rosero, telling them that no appeal will work in favor of the nursing graduates.
February 26, 2007: Brion said the labor department has started talks with deans of Centers of Excellence to conduct reviews for passers of the leakage-tainted June 2006 nursing licensure exams who are willing to re-take the equivalent of the controversial test modules. Meanwhile, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said Malacanang does not need to issue an executive order to pave the way for a re-take. He said Brion just have to coordinate with the PRC and set the date for the re-take.
February 27, 2006: President Arroyo refused to make a categorical statement on the recommendation of the DOLE for a retake of the leakage-tainted licensure exam to accommodate Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentebella's request for more time for a last-ditch appeal.
March 4, 2007: A team of government officials and representatives of nursing graduates left for the US to appeal with the CGFNS the case of Filipino nurses. The team was composed of Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentebella, PRC Chair Rosero, Remigia Nathanielz, Fatima University official and Renato Aquino, president of the nursing batch of 2006.
March 5, 2007: In a statement posted on its website March 5, CGFNS stood firm on its February 14 decision to deny VisaScreen Certification to the June 2006 passers of the Philippine nursing licensure exam.
June 1, 2007: Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez ordered filing of criminal charges against two members of the Board of Nursing for the examination leakage.
Minority Nurse recently announced a list of top ten cities and regions in the US that offer the highest salaries and the most number of opportunities for nurses.
Among the top ten include (in alphabtical order) Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Oakland, CA; Phoenix and Meza, AZ; Tampa and St. Petersburg, FL; and West Palm Beach, FL.
Summary:
Atlanta, GA Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $53,360 Cost of Living Index: 97.7 (Lower is better) Future Trends: Demand for nurses in Georgia will increase an estimated 51% from the year 2000 to 2020.
Baltimore, MD Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $70,100 Cost of Living Index: 119.5 Future Trends: Demand for nurses in Maryland will increase an estimated 36% from the year 2000 to 2020.
Boston, MA Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $70,460 Cost of Living Index: 136.4 Future Trends: Demand for nurses in Massachusetts will increase an estimated 29% from the year 2000 to 2020.
Charlotte, NC Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $54,740 Cost of Living Index: 90.3 Future Trends: Demand for nurses in North Carolina will increase an estimated 51% from the year 2000 to 2020.
Houston, TX Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $58,720 Cost of Living Index: 88.1 Future Trends: Demand for nurses in Texas will increase an estimated 57% from the year 2000 to 2020.
Las Vegas, NV Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $59,470 Cost of Living Index: 107.6 Future Trends: Demand for nurses in Nevada will increase an estimated 59% from the year 2000 to the year 2020.
Oakland, CA Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $80,270 Cost of Living Index: 143.9 Future Trends: Demand for nurses in California will increase an estimated 58% from the year 2000 to 2020. Phoenix and Mesa AZ Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $56,960 Cost of Living Index: 100.4 Future Trends: Demand for nurses in Arizona will increase an estimated 61% from the year 2000 to 2020.
Tampa and St. Petersburg, FL Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $52,960 Cost of Living Index: 98.8 Future Trends: Demand for nurses in Florida will increase an estimated 63% from the year 2000 to 2020.
West Palm Beach, FL Annual Mean Salary for RNs: $57,930 Cost of Living Index: 118.9 Future Trends: The percentage of elderly citizens in West Palm Beach will continue to grow at a rate that outpaces the rest of the country.
Read More...
By Veronica Uy INQUIRER.net First Posted 17:28:00 12/26/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- The nursing shortage in the United States is so critical that the Ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recommended the facilitation of the migration process of foreign nurses there.
A report on the situation said the US economy, considered to be in recession, depended a lot on the operation of hospitals.
"Hospitals are one of the largest private sector employers, hiring more than five million people and stimulating economic productivity," it said.
Citing a study by the American Hospital Association, the DHS's Ombudsman for CIS said hospitals supported one of every 10 jobs in the US and $1.9 trillion of economic activity.
And registered nurses, who held 2.5 million jobs in 2006, are employed mostly in hospitals; others are employed in public health and long-term care facilities.
A nurse recruiter told the CIS Ombudsman that every time the vacancy rate for registered nurses went up one percent, a hospital could lose as much as $300,000.
The AHA said the impact of hospitals on US health care and economy could be best described by these figures: Every year, 35 million are admitted in hospitals, 118 million admitted in emergency rooms, 4 million babies delivered, and over 481 million outpatients treated.
On the quality of patient care under normal circumstances, the threat of the nursing shortage and the subsequent heavy workload for current nurses is especially revealing.
The American Association of Colleges of Nurses (AACN) said more nurses would mean less hospital-related mortality and shorter patient stays.
In contrast, "inadequate staffing was reported to compromise patient safety," the AACN said.
"Most RNs have voiced concerns that there is not enough time 'to maintain patient safety, detect complications early, and collaborate with team members,'" it added.
Inadequate nursing staff reflected in increasing incidents of low nurse-to-patient ratios in many hospitals "are no longer safe" and are in fact a "code violation."
The current shortage also makes it difficult for health facilities to expand services or prepare for an emergency response. The CIS Ombudsman was told that beds and wings of some hospitals were closed due to the shortage.
And in times of disaster, the nursing shortage would even be more critical. Members of the Americans for Nursing Shortage Relief testified before the subcommittee on Nursing Crisis at the House of Representatives that the shortage could result in "serious national security and health concerns if there is a pandemic flu or other man-made or natural disaster and the United States does not have adequate health care resources to respond."
During a hearing at the US Congress, it was learned that the US Department of Veterans Affairs has a current vacancy of registered nurses of 10 percent (the absolute figure is not available).
"Notably, the demand for nurses will continue to grow by 2 to 3 percent each year," it said.
By 2014, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said, 1.2 million new registered nurses would be needed to meet the country's nursing requirements -- 500,000 to replace and another 700,000 to meet growing demand.
Aside from an aging US population that needs more health-care support, the CIS Ombudsman report cited the following factors for the projected increase in the nursing shortage: inadequate domestic facilities to educate and train nurses, the low number of nursing students, the existing aging workforce, and the barriers in the immigration process for foreign nurses.
The last factor is what the DHS seeks to address in its recommendation to facilitate the visa processing of foreign nurses, including Filipino nurses.
By Jerry E. Esplanada Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 16:41:00 10/10/2008
"PAANO na kami?" (What’s will happen to us?)” asks an anxious Genevieve “Bing” Lorenzo in serious concern over published reports that the once burgeoning overseas demand for Filipino nurses has begun to wane.
This part-time private pre-school teacher is currently enrolled in a Metro Manila hospital cum nursing school with “high hopes” that she would be able to work abroad in four or five years, preferably in the United States, where one of her siblings is based. This 24-year old Nueva Ecija native is now having second thoughts about finishing her course.
Sometime in July, Dr. Leah Paquiz, president of the Philippine Nursing Association (PNA), said in a news conference that Filipinos aspiring to jump on the nursing bandwagon should think twice. “Many licensed nurses are now underemployed or unemployed as a result of changes of policy in destination-countries, the current situation of oversupply and quality problems, among other things,” Paquiz explained.
A slowdown in overseas postings for nurses, particularly in the US and the United Kingdom, has resulted in a glut of nurses in the local market, PNA officials said. Nursing is no longer a lucrative profession and students who think they can use it as a passport to greener pastures abroad are seriously mistaken, they added.
Josefina Tuazon, dean of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing, advises prospective nurses to “go into nursing for the right reasons. If you are thinking of going into nursing to be able to go abroad or because your family is pressuring (you), then it is not the time.”
Higher Education Commissioner Nona S. Ricafort agrees. “At this point, we’re not encouraging Pinoys to join the nursing bandwagon,” she says. “Sad to say, the foreign demand for our nurses has hit a plateau (due to US and UK government policy issues). Most of the hospitals there have put a freeze on hiring nurses.”
Big hospitals like Philippine General Hospital in Manila and St. Luke’s in Quezon City have a backlog of nursing applications and a waiting time of six to 12 months. But Ricafort strongly believes that “the slowdown will only be temporary. Nursing jobs will be available again soon. We’re very confident about that.”
Reports from the US, Japan and some European countries describe a crisis in hospitals there, notes this CHed official. “With these countries’ aging populations, there’s a need for nurses. Who will take care of their old folk?”
With a projected enrolment of 497,214 students during the current school year, nursing tops the list of college courses here, according to records of the Commission on Higher Education’s Office of Policy, Planning, Research and Information.
Also in the Top 20 list of most popular baccalaureate programs are hotel and restaurant management (134,688), computer science (100,760), criminology (96,991), information technology (95,353), accountancy (89,564), management (82,882), elementary education (67,204), English education (52,336), electronics and communications engineering (48,252), marine transportation (45,034), computer engineering (43,388), civil engineering (39,202), business administration, management and accountancy (37,773), economics (33,656), industrial technology (33,470), public administration (32,810), commerce (29,897), community development (28,769), and business administration (28,479).
An additional 817,688 students are enrolled in other college courses, including the “least popular ones like agriculture and fisheries which our country really needs,” notes Ricafort.
“With the intense pressure to globalize all our professions, meaning they must jibe with the demands of industry and labor, there’s the need for an honest to goodness review of our tertiary education curriculum. This calls for a paradigm shift in the curriculum from being supply-driven to market-driven in terms of content and structure,” she adds.
When Patricia Sto. Tomas was Labor Secretary, she pointed out in an earlier employment summit that there were “many jobs available in the market, but we do not have the right people who are equipped with the skills and knowledge that match national and global labor demands.”
In the same forum, then CHed chair Carlito Puno observed that higher education institutions were producing “graduates who do not match the labor demand.”
“Let’s face it, not all college students are meant to take four-year courses. Why? Because not all of them can pass the board exams being administered by the Professional Regulations Commission. They should get real,” says Ricafort.
The CHed officer-in-charge stresses, “the answer to this is the ‘ladderized’ tertiary education program, an initiative of President Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Under the ladderized program, there are no dropouts. The curriculum is designed to allow flexibility. You may exit from one course and finish another. It’s not like old times when parents would insist that their children finish a four-year course because no one would employ them if they don’t have a college diploma. Not anymore.”
President Arroyo earlier issued Executive Order No. 358 which provides the mandate and legal framework for the implementation of the ladderized program in tertiary schools.
To date, all the 111 state universities and colleges nationwide are currently offering ladderized courses that allow learners to switch from technical-vocational education and training to college courses, and vice versa.
“But there’s a problem—only an average of four to five courses have been ladderized,” says Ricafort. She adds however that she’s confident that by school year 2009-2010, most courses would have undegone the same process.
In the private sector, less than a third of the over 1,500 colleges and universities have so far opted for the scheme. Lawyer Gonzalo Duque, president of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities, notes: “Some schools have reservations about the concept. They see it as putting the cart before the horse, or implementing the program now and asking questions later.”
Adds Duque, brother of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, whose family owns the Lyceum Northwestern University in Dagupan City: “There are more important things that need our attention, like the problems facing the nursing discipline.”
According to both CHed and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), ladderized education gives learners two distinct advantages: “They can ascend successive job platforms, get employed, earn money to further their education and acquire more skills and work experience. And they need not repeat previous and overlapping subjects. Their tech-voc competencies can be credited as units under a related college degree program and vice versa.”
That is why, nursing students “may opt to go for the two-year practical nursing or nursing aide courses,” says Ricafort, who has been appointed by President Arroyo as oversight commissioner for the ladderized education program. Aside from nursing, HRM, technical teacher education, computer science and IT, over 50 college courses have been ladderized.
The CHed is currently developing other courses for inclusion in the program, including dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, medical technology, liberal arts and music education, among others. However, “there are college courses like law and medicine that may not be ladderized. Well, at least in the near future,” says Ricafort. “But we remain optimistic. Former Justice Bernardo Pardo, who heads our law technical panel, says they’ll look into the matter.”
MANILA, Philippines -- The nursing board exam this November will be “leakage-free,” according to officials of the Board of Nursing, amid reports that one of the review centers have released some items in the tests scheduled for the 29th and 30th.
Carmencita Abaquin, BON chairperson, and member Marco Sto. Tomas, assured the public that they have taken the necessary steps to ensure the credibility of the forthcoming licensure exam.
They disclosed that text messages being circulated said that a review center has leaked parts of the test in Baguio, Cebu, and Surigao and that members of the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) -- one former, the other incumbent -- were behind this.
But Sto. Tomas said security measures have been adopted to prevent a repeat of the June 2006 scandal. These include the quarantine of the members of the PRC and BON from the time the questionnaires are “extracted, printed, and sealed.”
Sto. Tomas said 500 questions per test have been encoded into the computer. These will enter certain parameters/framework per competency (for the 5 tests) and the computer will extract these questions based on the framework by which they have been entered.
"All these are done under quarantine meaning we have no communication outside," Sto. Tomas said.
And then the questions will be extracted, printed, and sealed, he said.
Printing has been centralized unlike during the board exam controversy in 2006 when printing was done per region.
In transporting of questionnaires, there will be escorts from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Sto. Tomas said.
"These text messages from review centers are only using the leakage as a marketing ploy to entice examinees. They are capitalizing on what happened years ago and the PRC is suffering from this scheme," Abaquin said.
The BON is coordinating with the nursing schools, as well as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), to implement strict measures to make sure that the country will have high quality nurses, Sto. Tomas said.
There are a total of 88,750 nursing graduates set to take the second licensure examination on November 29 and 30, with the figure considered to be the highest in PRC history.
The BON will go on quarantine starting November 19.
MANILA, Philippines -- A member of the Board of Nursing on Monday belied news reports that the number of unemployed Filipino nurses was more than 400,000, and that number was more likely between 80,000 and 100,000.
Marco Antonio Sto. Tomas told INQUIRER.net that a review of statistics with the Department of Labor and Employment, showed that the 400,000-plus figure was "not logical" and probably referred to the number of registered or licensed Filipino nurses.
"From 1952 to date, the country has so far registered or licensed 480,992 Filipino nurses out of the 523,272 who actually passed the Philippine Nurse Licensure Examinations. The 400,000-plus refers to the actual cumulative stock of Filipino nurses, not unemployed nurses," he said.
"If that figure were true, then I'd be one of the unemployed nurses," he said, adding that the 480,992 figure includes the dead and the retired.
Sto. Tomas said the 80,000 to 100,000 unemployed Filipino nurses could find jobs "not just in the United States or in the United Kingdom, where there is a recession, but also in France, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand."
"There is still a big demand for Filipino nurses in the international market even with the slowdown in the West," he said.
Sto. Tomas said the problem was principally "pacing," where supply and demand didn’t match. He said most health-care facilities abroad wanted experienced nurses. As such, new graduates who want to work abroad need to gain experience in the country for a couple of years, he said.
Sto. Tomas also said that the Commission on Higher Education should regulate fly-by-night nursing schools, which not only contributed to unprepared, unqualified, and unemployable nursing graduates, but also to the high failing rate in the board exams.
MANILA, Philippines – At least 88,750 aspiring nurses will take the second licensure exam of the year, a member of the Board of Nursing said Monday.
"This is the largest number of examinees we have in the almost 90 years of the board's existence," BON member Marco Antonio Sto. Tomas told INQUIRER.net.
At the same time, Sto. Tomas said the second of the bi-annual board exam was set on November 29 and 30, and not the usual first week of December.
"This is to accommodate the new board exam for guidance counselors," he said.
The earlier schedule will also force the board to go on quarantine earlier, on November 19, he said.
"With this volume of examinees, we might have the results next year already, in January or February," he said.
"It depends on how fast the machines will help us in the checking," he added.
Sto. Tomas said the usual precautions would be taken to ensure that there would be no leaks of the exam questions or results before the prescribed time.
The June 2006 nursing licensure examination was tainted when certain nursing centers came out with reviewers that had questions from the test. Many re-took the exam, but not after a lot of acrimony, legal and otherwise.
