CHED lifts ban on new nursing program, welcomes HEIs application

But the CHED clarified they will be strict in considering these applications to ensure the problems encountered before the moratorium will not happen again, as well as to supply an adequate number of licensed nurses, especially in the regions in need of more Nursing HEIs. (File photo: Irwan iwe/Unsplash)

MANILA – Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) may submit their application starting July 14 to reopen new nursing programs, as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) announced the lifting of a decade-long moratorium on Wednesday.

In a virtual presser, CHED Chairperson Prospero “Popoy” De Vera III said they came up with the decision on Tuesday following their comprehensive assessment initiated during the height of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

“Yesterday, the Commission en banc after a very thorough review and study of the moratorium on nursing, decided to lift the moratorium on nursing, based on an exhaustive discussion,” he said.

De Vera said the CHED has carefully considered the supply and demand of nurses according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

As of now, a total number of 201,265 job positions for nurses must be filled nationwide, implying a huge gap between the UN SDGs ideal number of 300,470 nurses, far higher than the actual number of nurses in the Philippines, of around 90,205.

But despite criticisms from several lawmakers and stakeholders, the CHED defended the timing of the lifting, saying they have to address issues that have caused the moratorium in the first place.

De Vera recalled issues such as the oversupply of graduates with around 200,000 unemployed nursing graduates; gradual decline of the performance of nursing education graduates in the Nurse Licensure Examinations (NLE); proliferation of HEIs offering BS Nursing Programs, some barely reaching the standard passing rate of 30 percent; and worst, students paying for hospitals just to be trained, due to a lack of affiliations in base hospitals.

“If you immediately lift it, you might go back to the same situation before 2011, and that situation is of crisis proportions at that time, so we have to be very careful about lifting the moratorium, and we must ensure that the problems encountered before, will not happen now,” he said.

Moreover, De Vera noted that the CHED will now allow Department of Health (DOH) Level 2 accredited hospitals to be affiliated as base hospitals or training facilities for students.

“We are being more flexible in the opening of new programs by allowing Level 2 DOH accredited hospitals that can become the training hospitals of HEIs that have nursing programs, because of the need for more nursing students and graduates,” he said.

But the CHED clarified they will be strict in considering these applications to ensure the problems encountered before the moratorium will not happen again, as well as to supply an adequate number of licensed nurses, especially in the regions in need of more Nursing HEIs.

These include MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), Eastern Visayas, CARAGA, BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao), CAR, and SOCCSKSARGEN, which are all under Code Red, meaning in urgent need of nurses.

“We will not prioritize. We are lifting the moratorium in all areas, but the color-coding will alert the universities that when they apply for the new nursing programs the probability that the nursing programs will be approved is higher in the areas where there is really a need. For example, there are areas where we lack base hospitals for them to train. So unless they have base hospitals, we cannot allow them to open nursing programs because their students will not have a place to train,” he said.

Classified under Code Yellow or High Level are CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), Western Visayas, Bicol Region, Davao Region, Cagayan Valley, and Central Luzon, while the rest remains under Code Green or with a low-level demand.

In 2011, the CHED imposed a moratorium on new nursing programs for HEIs. Since then, several HEIs which can’t attain at least a 30 percent passing rate for the NLE for three consecutive years were shut down, which eventually lead to the increase in passing rate which is not at 58.06 percent for the year 2021.