My Thoughts on CPD and Nursing

I have noticed a lot of nurses are now scrambling to have their licenses renewed by taking advantage of the advance 1 year renewal. For people who aren’t aware of the problem, a relatively new law effectively requires professionals to be “updated” with their current profession.

I’m using the word “updated” loosely here as the law authored by Senator Antonio Trillanes may have good intentions but he completely missed the mark. The Nursing profession indeed has taken several big hits starting with the 2006 nursing board cheating scandal to quite a few incidents abroad. Unfortunately, Trillanes’ remedy is a band aid solution and one that might worsen the current situation in my opinion.

I think it’s commendable for a soldier turned mutineer turned senator to think of the welfare of professionals like nurses. But I can’t help but think if this was just a lobbied law by several groups keen on creating or strengthening an industry that is providing continuing professional education or continuing professional development (CPD) units. Unfortunately to obtain said units costs the average nurse a lot. Let’s put things into perspective.

According to the law, a nurse needs about 45 CPD units in order to renew their license (IRR of CPD act of 2016) which to some might seem easy to get. Not really.

Problem 1 – It’s hard to find seminars that are accredited to provide CPD units. Some CPD providers have talked about the delays in getting accredited.

Problem 2 – Those that do provide CPD units offer seminars/lectures that are too expensive especially for contractual nurses working in the private sector. An example would be a national convention that costs 3,500 to join but only gave out 6 CPD units. That’s almost like 500-600 pesos per unit. It looks small and cheap to some but the following problems arise.

Problem 3 – Nurses are required to pay for themselves when going to CPD seminars/lectures. Hospital executives couldn’t care less because going on to the next problem

Problem 4 – We nurses have to be absent at work and most hospitals have a no work no pay policy. For those with leave credits, would you waste 2-3 days of leave just for a max 8 CPD units?

Problem 5 – CPD providers tend to stick to cities. So nurses in rural and far flung areas have to deal not just being absent (with no pay) but also travel, board and lodgings as well as other expenses for communication, supplies during the seminar and more.

Problem 6 – I still haven’t found official information about it yet but it seems that you can’t get all 45 units in 1 year. It has to be spaced evenly in 3 years. So you can only get max 15 units a year.

The law definitely needs to be reviewed because I think Nurses aren’t the only ones suffering. So are other professions hit by this law. There’s an ongoing petition that challenges the law and if you think this law is still “raw”, sign up.

It’s a good thing though, PRC has extended the zero CPD units for Nurses until December 31, 2017 for renewal of PRC ID.