House health panel chair urges CHED to lift moratorium on new nursing programs

House Committee on Health chairperson Rep. Angelina "Helen" Tan on Monday urged the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to lift the moratorium on the opening of new programs for nursing, citing the lack of nurses in the country amid the pandemic.

In her privilege speech, Tan said the House of Representatives should also revisit the moratorium as contained in CHED Memorandum Order No. 32 that was issued in 2010.

"The role of nurses in our health care system cannot be over-emphasized, not only in delivering quality health care but as well as in achieving our Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Tan, who is also a registered nurse, said.

"They make critical contributions to the achievement of national and global targets related to a range of health priorities, including universal health care, mental health, and communicable and non-communicable diseases, emergency preparedness and response, patient safety, and the delivery of integrated, people-centered care," she added.

She noted that even before the pandemic, "the world does not have a global nursing workforce commensurate with the universal health coverage and SDG targets."

She said now was the perfect time for CHED to assess the relevance of its memorandum. The said memorandum became effective school year 2011-2012.

The memorandum also covers business administration, teacher education, hotel and restaurant management, and information technology (IT).

CHED had said the increase in the number of institutions offering these programs was one of the reasons for the moratorium.

“There is already a proliferation of Higher Education Institutions offering Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in (these courses), which if allowed to continue unabated would result in deterioration of the quality of graduates of these five higher education programs," CHED had said. — DVM, GMA News