Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 26) — The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) said the country’s shortage of nurses cannot be considered as a crisis to justify the issuance of temporary licenses to nursing graduates who have yet to pass the board exam.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ The Source on Monday, PRC Commissioner Jose Cueto Jr. noted that only the Medical Act of 1959 has the provision that can support the plan of Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Ted Herbosa to hire unlicensed nurses amid the shortage in the country. However, this law only “allows medical graduates to be given limited authorization by the secretary of health in times of national emergencies,” he said.
This would have been possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, or when Typhoon Yolanda hit Tacloban in 2013, he noted
The Philippines is a major provider of nurses abroad.
Citing 2021 data from the DOH, Cueto noted that about 50% of roughly 600,000 PRC-registered nurses are migrant nurses. While the remaining half are in the country, not all of them are practicing their profession, he said.
Meanwhile, public hospitals are in immediate need of 4,500 nurses. The DOH also said the country is in need of nearly 130,000 of these medical professionals, which may take 12 years to fill.
The PRC has said there is no legal basis for it to issue temporary permits to nursing graduates who have yet to pass the licensure exam and scored 70% to 74% as suggested by Herbosa.
Under section 21 of Republic Act 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act, a special or temporary permit may only be issued to licensed nurses from foreign countries or states who are well-known specialists, foreign licensed nurses whose services are for a medical mission, or foreign licensed nurses employed by schools as exchange professors, the PRC said last week.
Cueto said the government should focus on hiring the 47,000 licensed nurses from 2021 to 2023 to address the shortage in the country.
In a statement on June 23, Herbosa said the DOH and the PRC are exploring ways to fill the 4,500 vacancies as his plan poses legal challenges. One way is by hiring nursing graduates as nursing assistants.
