canned thoughts

One of the best nursing schools in the country today with no less than St. Lukes Medical Center as its base hospital, St. Lukes College of Nursing (SLCN) one of the educational units of Trinity College of Quezon City (Trinity College) has expressed full support for the "campaign" to educate students on what schools would best help them be competent nursing graduates in the future.

Trinity College president Josefina Sumaya, PhD, says that accessible information on school rankings and passing averages at the board exams will guide students to choose the right schools wherein to pursue their studies in nursing.

This remark was in response to Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiagos much publicized list of the 20 best and the 20 worst performing nursing schools nationwide in terms of students passing rate in the licensure test. Santiago announced such list last May in the hope of helping incoming nursing freshmen choose which institution to enroll in.

"Its good to see that our political leaders like Cong. Santiago has taken an active role in advising students to be critical and meticulous in choosing the nursing schools they will enroll in," says Sumaya.

Santiagos list, culled from data from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), showed that the top 20 nursing schools had as much as a 99 percent passing rate in licensure examinations while the worst ones would have as low as a nine percent passing rate. SLCN ranked ninth in Santiagos list of the best nursing schools with an 87 percent average passing rate in the years 1999-2003. According to SLCN Dean Gisela Luna, with fewer students in its earlier years until 1995, the College would even chalk up 100 percent passing rates in those years.

Meantime, in the June 2005 nursing board exams, SLCN got an 88 percent passing rate, with 108 students passing the test out of its 123 graduates who took the exam; PRCs computed national passing rate across all categories pales in comparison at 49.41 percent, with only 12,843 passing the board out of over 26,000 examinees. Luna says that for the first time, this years SLCN batch of examinees crossed over to the "100 and more examinees" category from the "99 and below examinees" category. In 2004, with fewer nursing graduates (92) taking the board exam, the school was able to chalk up a higher passing rate of 95 percent.

Celebrating its centennial in 2007, SLCN is the product of the partnership between Trinity College and sister institution St. Lukes Medical Center, both owned and organized by the Philippine Episcopal Church in concordat with the Philippine Independent Church. Aside from BS Nursing, SLCN also offers an eight-month Care-Giver course and a two-year course in Health Science Education.

thanks to bestespren dennis for the info.