Team to appeal CGFNS ruling on test retake

A five-man team leaves Manila Sunday morning in a last-ditch effort to appeal to the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) in Philadelphia to reverse its Feb 14 decision denying VisaScreen Certificates to Filipino nursing graduates who passed the leakage-tainted June 2006 nursing licensure exam. The team is composed of Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) chair Leonor Rosero, BAcolod City Rep. Monico Puentevella, former Board of Nursing chair Eufemia Octaviano, Fatima University Dean Remigia Nathanielz and Alliance of New Nurses president Renato Aquino. Rosero said in an interview on dzMM that CGFNS chief executive officer Barbara Nichols herself scheduled a meeting with the group on Monday for the appeal. The group is proceeding with the US trip despite a statement from CGFNS on Feb 24 that the decision was final and that there was no provision for an appeal or reconsideration of the CGFNS Board of Trustees simply because there was no higher body to take up the appeal. Puentevella said however that by agreeing to meet them, Nichols has given them a chance to explain the circumstances that led to the Philippine Court of Appeals in October, and eventually the Supreme Court, to order a selective re-take of the compromised exam on December 2 and 3 following a recomputation of the results. “So many things happened between September when CGFNS was here and today, so we are hoping we can convince them to reconsider the decision," Puentevella said. “The US Embassy Consul General Richard Dale Haynes advised us that this is the best approach, that we give CGFNS a personal account of what has happened," Puentevella said. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has accommodated Puentevella’s appeal to give the panel one last chance to convince CGFNS to reconsider its earlier decision that recommended passers of the controversial June 2006 licensure exam to retake the equivalent of Tests 3 (Medical Surgical Nursing) and 5 (Psychiatric Mental Health) and pass it to qualify for VisaScreen Certificate. A VisaScreen Certificate is required before any healthcare worker educated outside the U.S. can be issued an occupational visa to work in the United States. Passing the exam-retake does not however guarantee that a nurse licensed to practice in the Philippines can already go to the United States and work as a nurse. CGFNS explained in its website that it would simply make them eligible for VisaScreen Certificate, which is a US immigration requirement. “The VisaScreen Certificate is required of all foreign-national nurses who seek occupational visas under U.S. immigration law -- regardless of which State in the United States that they intend to practice," CGFNS explained in a statement posted Feb 20 in its website. Eligible nurses who want to work in the US still have to pass the CGFNS qualifying exam. A CGFNS qualifying exam is scheduled on July 11. CGFNS explained that a re-take of the June 2006 exam is not mandatory to all passers, and that it would not mean surrendering the license granted by PRC. “CGFNS acknowledges that those nurses who have been sworn in as registered nurses as a result of their passing the June 2006 licensure exam are validly licensed in the Philippines. CGFNS raises no question of their lawful right to practice nursing in the Philippines," it said. “U.S. immigration law, however, requires CGFNS to make a determination as part of the VisaScreen process about several elements of the visa applicants' education, training, license and experience -- including their comparability to U.S. nurses," it explained. “After reviewing the circumstances concerning the irregularities of the June 2006 nursing licensing exam, CGFNS concluded that the licensure process for the June 2006 licensure exam is not comparable to that required of U.S. nurses, and that U.S. immigration law therefore prohibits issuance of a VisaScreen Certificate to individuals who passed this exam," CGFNS further said. “The VisaScreen certification process is an Immigration process -- not a licensure process -- that must be satisfied to obtain an occupational visa to work in the United States. Passing NCLEX is a licensure requirement to practice nursing in the United States, but it is not a substitute for the federal VisaScreen rule," it clarified amid the confusion arising from conflicting views from Philippine government officials. Meantime, CGFNS International recently announced the opening of three new exam centers in China, in addition to the current exam site in Beijing, beginning with the July 11, 2007 CGFNS Qualifying Exam. The new exam centers are in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. The exam center number assigned for Shanghai is # 808; the exam center number assigned for Guangzhou is # 809; and the exam center number assigned for Chengdu is # 811. The exam center number assigned to Beijing is # 801. Applicants who are interested in taking the July Qualifying Exam in any of the four exam sites in China need to indicate the appropriate exam center number as their choice of exam center on their Certification Program application. - GMANews.TV