Filipino nurses bewail CGFNS ‘poor service’

By Leonardo O. Aromin

In 2003, there were 13,000 Filipino nurses who availed of the services of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS). That translates to a total amount of $7.2 million in fees that were paid to CGFNS.

The number of Filipino nurses (13,000) represents more than 50% of the total number of foreign nurses worldwide who availed of the CGFNS services in 2003.

Therefore, the bulk of the income of CGFNS, a non-profit company based in Philadelphia, comes from Filipino nurses.

With this as a fact, one would think that the non-profit organization would have an operational office in the Philippines. Right?

Wrong. The truth is, the CGFNS has a one-man office in Manila with one telephone and one office computer.

“It is unfortunate that the organization is not delivering the excellent service that are due to the Filipino nurses, being the largest group of foreign nurses that utilize the services of CGFNS,” said Arthur Cantos, President of Bayani Consulting, a company based in Makati.

Cantos was one of the speakers during the 2-day Western Regional Conference of the Philippine Nurses Association of America (PNAA) in Tempe, Arizona on March 12-13, 2004.

Cantos, who himself is a Registered Nurse and worked in a hospital in San Francisco before forming his own company in Makati, said “ problems of delay, lost of documents, long turn around time and inefficient services of the CGFNS have been documented” by their office.

Mary Ann Tion, now working at St. Joseph Hospital told The Filipino American Journal that she spent P1,000.00 for telephone bills when she contacted CGFNS office in Philadelphia. Did she get any response?

“No, I never got any response from CGFNS. I was not able to talk to any live person. All I got were recorded messages,” Tion said.

During an interview with The Filipino American Journal, Tion also said that she also sent her documents to CGFNS “three times because the company said they did not receive my documents.”

“The ideal situation is to bring the services to the Philippines; which means setting up an operational office in the Philippines so that the nurses can have real answers to their questions,” Cantos said.

Cantos explained that he learned that CGFNS is planning to put up an operational office in India, the second largest supplier of foreign nurses to the U.S.

“What we have in the Philippines,” Cantos said, “is a one-man CGFNS office with one telephone and one office computer.”

The 2-day nurses conference in Tempe has expressed a letter of concern on the issue of CGFNS not being able to provide an efficient service to the Filipino nurses, said Nelly Peterson, president of the Philippine Nurses Association of Arizona (PNA-AZ.)

“Steps are being taken by the Philippine Nurses Association of American (PNAA) to bring to the attention of the CGFNS this issue,” said Pete Calixto, former president of the nurses association.

The Filipino American Journal learned that a resolution to be signed by the Executive Board of the PNAA would be officially adopted during the PNAA’s national conference in Hawaii in July this year.

“It is necessary to bring this crucial issue to the open,” said Macbeth Torno, president of the PNA-AZ.

The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) was established as a not-for-profit, immigration neutral organization with a commitment to protect the public by ensuring that nurses educated in countries other than the United States (U.S.) are eligible and qualified to meet licensure and other practice requirements in the U.S.

Throughout its history, CGFNS has demonstrated its commitment to excellence and quality in the healthcare arena and to fostering equitable treatment of healthcare professionals.

The CGFNS mission is to provide leadership in [healthcare education], registration and licensure to the global nursing and professional healthcare communities. CGFNS protects the public in relation to evolving healthcare policies and standards of professional practice for migrating healthcare professionals.

CGFNS provides products and services that validate credentials and enhance international regulatory and educational standards for healthcare professionals.

Meanwhile, the National Council of the State Board of Nursing (NCSBN) had decided to hold NCLEX exam in some testing centers aside from Mainland America. Presently, Filipino nurses have to fly to Saipan, a U.S. territory for the NCLEX exam.

Meladee Stankus, president of the Nurse Immigration USA, LLC, a nurse-recruiting agency based in Scottsdale, Arizona said, “it is unlikely that the Philippines will be selected as a possible site of NCLEX exam.”

Stankus said, the NCSBN is leaning towards Japan or Singapore as a possible NCLEX testing site.

“There must be a way,” Stankus said, “to convince the NCSBN to have the NCLEX exam in the Philippines.”

“It is unfair to by-pass the Philippines as a possible NCLEX testing center considering that Filipino nurses are the largest group of foreign nurses who are taking the exam,” said Nelly Peterson, president of PNA-AZ.

In 2002, there were 10,000 Filipino nurses and only 60 Japanese nurses who took the exam.

The decision to have Japan as a possible testing center has been described as an “oxymoron decision” by Bayani Consulting.

If there were 10,000 Filipino nurses and only 60 Japanese nurses who took the exam in 2002, “is it not an oxymoron decision to hold the NCLEX exam in Japan?” Cantos asked.

Speakers during the conference said the National Board of Nursing Council, the agency that supervises the NCLEX has by-passed the Philippines “because of security reasons.”

(Leonardo Aromin FAJ)