BAGUIO CITY - The government, through the Commission of Higher Education (CHED), is closely monitoring the performance of all nursing education programs in the country.

This was the assurance given by Professional Regulation Commission (PRC-Baguio) regional director Teofilo Gaius Sison Jr., in a radio interview, Thursday. The PRC, he said, is assisting CHED by collating data if a certain nursing school has nursing licensure examination passers among their graduates, and on how many of their graduates passed.

According to Sison, if a certain school has no board passers for three consecutive years, CHED has an option to close the nursing program. CHED has already closed some nursing schools in line with the zero-performing schools policy.

“Monitoring and inspection has long been being done by the CHED and together with our office, we conduct joint inspection on nursing schools wherein we check if a school complies with the standards in terms of facilities, admission standard, and curriculum. We have to ensure that nursing schools provide high quality of education,” Sison said.

Meantime, Sison also affirmed that PRC is also involved in a multi-agency initiative in nursing education. The PRC, in partnership with other government agencies, such as CHED, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), the Association of Dean of Philippine Colleges of Nursing and some Local Government Units (LGUs), late last year held a Nursing Stakeholders Forum.

“It is a multi-sectoral approach sponsored by the Regional Development Council, which aims to boost the quality of nursing education here in the region. Crafted during the said forum is a regional action plan for the nursing sector which also includes the concern on employment of our nurses,” Sison stressed.

Sison also said that government, through the Department of Education (DepEd), is also conducting career guidance and counseling to students as early as their high school days. (JDP/LD-PIA CAR)