CHED lifts decade-long moratorium on new BS Nursing programs

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Wednesday announced the lifting of the moratorium on the opening of new nursing undergraduate programs in schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Yesterday, the commission en banc, after a very thorough review and study of the moratorium on nursing, decided to lift the moratorium on nursing based on an exhaustive discussion,” CHED chairperson Prospero de Vera III said in a press conference.

According to De Vera, the moratorium has been reviewed amid calls for its lifting due to reported lack of healthcare workers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

De Vera presented data from the Department of Health (DOH) showing that the country needs 201,265 more nurses based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requirement.

“If you look at the total nurses in the Philippines and the current nurse to population ratio, you will notice that there is really a big gap in the supply side,” De Vera said.

“The demand side requires more nurses than what we have,” he added.

Based on SDG requirements, there should be 27.4 nurses for a population of 10,000. The Philippines currently has 90,205 nurses but ideally it needs 300,470, the DOH data showed.

Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas, Caraga, BARMM, CAR and Soccksargen are in urgent need to have schools offering BS Nursing programs, according to CHED.

“Minap out namin saan yung mga region na kulang ang schools, kulang ang graduate at yung nurse population ratio mababa. Mayroong teaching hospital itong mga region na sa aming tingin nangangailangan talaga ng additional nursing programs so kinolor code namin yan yung urgent kasama dyan ang Soccksargen, CAR, BARMM etc.,” De Vera said in an interview on GMA’s Balitanghali on Thursday.

(We mapped out which regions lack schools and graduates and where the nurse population ratio is low. There are some teaching hospitals in these regions that we think really need additional nursing programs so we color-coded those who are in urgent need, including Soccsksargen, CAR, BARMM etc.)

He urged the universities in these areas to open schools offering nursing programs.

“Pero bukas sa lahat ng university na gusto mag-open ng new nursing program pwede sila lahat magapply but we are urging universities in these urgent areas na magbukas,” he added.

(But it is open to all universities that want to open new nursing programs. They can all apply but we are urging universities in these urgent areas to open.)

Interested higher education institutions can now apply to open new undergraduate nursing programs.

Before the announcement, some lawmakers had been calling on the commission to scrap the moratorium on nursing programs.

In September 2010, CHED issued  Memorandum Order 32 that stopped the opening of all undergraduate and graduate programs in nursing beginning School Year 2011-2012.

The moratorium was imposed due to the decline of the quality of graduates. — with Richa Noriega/KBK/BM, GMA News