STI working for permanent permits to offer nursing

STI is working to acquire permanent permits to offer nursing at its STI-Lahug, Cebu campus and four other STI campuses.

 

According to STI vice president for marketing Elbert de Guzman, STI has allocated P100 million for its 20 campuses, which are offering the nursing course, to be able to comply with the new requirement of the Commission on Higher Education (Ched).

 

He refuted speculations that information technology (IT) schools like STI are not capable of offering the nursing course because they lack the expertise.

 

“If that is the case, then medical schools or any university not specializing in IT has no right to offer the IT school to their students,” De Guzman said.

 

In November last year, Ched had revoked the permits to offer nursing of some nursing schools that failed to comply with Ched’s requirements.
This was prompted by the low passing rate of the nursing graduates of these schools.

 

A Cebu-based businessman said in a separate interview that the government should not give nursing schools a difficult time because nurses are among the country’s top human resource exports.

 

“Why are they regulating nursing schools? We need nursing schools to sustain the supply of nurses to other countries,” he said.

 

De Guzman told business reporters last week that all of the 20 campuses of STI, which are offering nursing, including Cebu, have complied with the requirements of Ched and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

 

“The problem is that Ched changed its requirement in the middle of the game,” he said.

 

Originally, Ched required nursing schools to partner with any hospital that can provide its students with hands-on training. But Ched later defined the host-hospital to be a “tertiary hospital, or an A-hospital with complete facilities,” he said.

 

“But we are here to follow the rules. We are working on the permanent permits of five of our campuses,” he said.

 

After Ched’s re-evaluation of STI’s nursing schools, 15 of STI’s nursing schools were granted regular permits, while the five—those in Cebu, Cubao, Global City, Muñoz-Edsa and Quezon Avenue—were given temporary permits.

 

De Guzman said IT schools offering nursing have an edge because the United States is now requiring nurses to have the basic knowledge in IT. “With IT knowledge, nurses can also work in medical transcription companies.”

 

De Guzman said the Delos Santos-STI College in Luzon has been offering nursing for 36 years.