MANILA — Nursing students can now get free review classes for their licensure exam under a new agreement between the Department of Health (DOH), Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Private Sector Advisory Council.

Under the joint agreement order (JAO)that was signed Wednesday by representatives from the three agencies, first-time takers of the licensure exam, retakers and those who want to return to nursing may enroll in accredited higher education institutions for the review classes.

The DOH and CHED will provide funding for the free classes while private and public government hospitals agreed to shoulder the fees of their clinical care associates.

The agreement aims to solve the problem of nurse shortage in the country, said Health Secretary Ted Herbosa.

According to Herbosa, many nursing students and graduates do not take review classes because of the costs.

“The average cost is about anywhere from P20,000 to 25,000 for board review. And if you’re jobless, where will you get P25,000? So efforts like these are really wonderful,” he said.

CHED Chairperson Prospero de Vera III said the program can help produce more nurses.

"Only about 50 percent of nursing students pass the licensure," De Vera said.

"We have to look for the other 50 percent. We have to give them opportunities for re-skilling, for getting better at the licensure test. And we can immediately produce new nurses," he added.

The country currently has 511,173 licensed nurses but only half of them work in the Philippines, said Herbosa.

The remaining half work in other countries or industries, which is why many hospitals like the Philippine General Hospital are understaffed, he explained.

Herbosa said the free review class is just among the various steps that the government is taking to address the shortage of nurses.

He pointed out that the government is also in the process of organizing an advisory council that will inform authorities about the problems in the sector.

• DOH chief bubuo ng advisory council para sa isyu ng nurses

“This JAO signing is very critical and important because it is one of the several long-term, medium-term, and immediate interventions that we have discussed with [our] the President to address the nursing shortage,” De Vera said.

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