A nurse prepares for her shift inside at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center on May 8, 2020. Gigie Cruz, ABS-CBN News/File

MANILA — Nurses looking to enter the academe can now avail a quicker chance to teach and train future Filipino nurses, thanks to the launch of an “enhanced” master’s degree program for nurses by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

Under the program—offered initially by 17 pilot higher education institutions (HEIs) this August—nurses will be able to use their relevant nursing experience to attain their master’s degrees within one year.

This hopes to address the shortage of qualified nursing faculty, CHED commissioner Dr. Prospero De Vera III said at a press conference Wednesday.

“It is part of the long-term solution, but it is also an immediate solution,” he said, referring to the agency’s work to solve the country’s shortage in nurses.

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Aside from recognizing nurses’ prior learning or experience in patient care, the enhanced program features a “flexible” learning system with a hybrid of online lecture courses and face-to-face related learning experience, De Vera said.

It would also tap technology used by top nursing schools and enable the schools offering the program to work together and share practices.

“In the end, you produce a faculty member who has understanding of technology and their use in learning, a faculty member who is produced by a consortium of universities, and most of all, you attract faculty members who practice already to go to teaching, and the best part of it is, they can finish their graduate studies faster,” De Vera said.

Scholarships would be offered to current nursing school faculty members who are still pursuing their graduate studies.

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WHERE WILL PROGRAM BE OFFERED?

The program is also seen to boost the capability of schools that have begun offering nursing courses since 2022, when the CHED lifted an over-decade-long moratorium on the program.

The CHED has tracked a continued increase in BS Nursing enrollees in the Philippines over the past 5 years, from 53,889 in 2019 to 191,361 in 2023.

There are 381 HEIs offering the nursing program—48 of which only started since the end of the moratorium.

“Enrollment is limited by the lack of faculty. And this is a concrete step to increase enrollment and maximize the potential of our new nursing colleges to contribute to national health workforce in support of the universal health care implementation,” said Dr. Michael Tee, chancellor of the University of the Philippines Manila. 

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UP Manila helped CHED develop the enhanced master’s program with the UP Open University and will both offer it. 

The HEIs in the pilot program include the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Cebu Normal University in Cebu City, and Silliman University in Dumaguete City—all of which garnered a 100 percent average passing rate in the Philippine Nurse Licensure Exam in the past 5 years. 

Also in the pilot list for Metro Manila are Trinity University of Asia and Centro Escolar University. 

Others in Luzon include:

-Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte (Region I)

-St. Paul University Philippines in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan (Region II)

-Southern Luzon State University in Lucban, Quezon (Region IV)

-Adventist University of the Philippines in Silang, Cavite (Region IV)

-Unibersidad de Santa Isabel in Naga, Camarines Sur (Region V)

-Camarines Sur Polytechnic College (Region V)

-Bicol University in Legazpi City (Region V)

Visayas and Mindanao:

-West Visayas State University in Iloilo City (Region VI)

-Western Mindanao State University in Zamboanga City (Region IX)

-San Pedro College in Davao City (Region XI)

If the program works, CHED hopes to open it to other HEIs, De Vera said.

Aside from fast-tracking more nursing faculty, CHED is also working with HEIs to provide special review classes for so-called “underboard” nursing graduates or those who have not yet passed the licensure exam.

“We are producing world-class nurses both for whatever interest the graduates want to do later on. Importante, we maintain our reputation as a country who produces world-class nurses who may practice their profession wherever they want to,” De Vera said.

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