THE CATHOLIC Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) has agreed to the government’s revised Nursing curriculum, after changes on subjects and shortening of clinical duties were made to an earlier Commission on Higher Education (Ched) memorandum that made Nursing practically a five-year program.
Ched Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 5 was revoked last January, following the stiff opposition from private schools. UST was among the few schools that implemented the new curriculum.
Ateneo de Zamboanga President Fr. Antonio Moreno, S.J. said four years is enough to finish Nursing.
“You do not need five years to finish Nursing, unlike other courses like Engineering,” Moreno said during a press conference for the CEAP National Convention at the Manila Hotel last September 16.
The Coordinating Council of Private Education Associations (Cocopea) had failed to get a temporary restraining order from the court against CMO 5 or the “Policies and Standards for Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program.” The group claimed the new curriculum was an added burden to students. CEAP is a member of Cocopea, the biggest consortium of private schools in the country.
Nonetheless, Ched replaced CMO 5 with CMO 14 last April 16.
Susan Maravilla, College of Nursing assistant dean, said that with CEAP’s approval, all nursing schools in the country should now adhere to CMO 14 to “elevate the standard of nursing education in the country.”
“Everybody should implement it now,” Maravilla said.
CMO 14 offers two new elective courses. Elective I deals with parent child nursing, spiritual care nursing, and hospice palliative nursing; while Elective II tackles acute and critical care nursing, quality health care, and care for the chronically ill.
“Computer 101” or “Introduction to Computers” was also replaced with “Nursing Informatics,” or the use of computer in the nursing profession. Subjects like “Nursing Care Management 101” and 102 were shortened to eight units in CMO 14 from 12 units in CMO 5.
CMO 14 also put the number of hours for “related learning experiences” or clinical duties to 2,091 hours from 2,499 in the earlier memo.
Maravilla said UST had no problem adopting the new curriculum “since the college had already adopted CMO 5 that was just modified by CMO 14.”
Maravilla said the new curriculum is advantageous to Nursing students.
“The good thing about the course is on the first year, students already have nursing subjects,” she said.
In the old curriculum, students took up nursing subjects in their sophomore year. Cliff Harvey C. Venzon
