89,000 to take Boards

89,000 to take Nov. nursing board exam - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

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.