HISTORICAL

PERSPECTIVE OF THE
NURSING CURRICULUM
Nurses serve a crucial role in meeting the healthcare needs of
the Filipino people and to ensure that nurses are well-equipped
to fulfill this role, the Philippine government passed laws over
the years to keep Nursing Education in the country relevant
and apace with the demands of global competitiveness
(CHED,2001). Nursing Education in the Philippines has
undergone a lot of changes starting from the early 1900s with
the establishment of the first Nursing School (Iloilo Mission
Hospital) by the Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1906. At that
time, there were no standard requirements but just
willingness to work and the instruction includes reading,
writing, arithmetic, and nursing (Giron-Tupas, 1952).
The outbreaks of epidemics in the country increased the
need for more nurses to serve the public and opening
government-sponsored nursing schools was seen as the
solution to the problem. This time, those who want to study
to become a nurse were required to complete 7th Grade and pass
a comprehensive examination. Courses included Drugs &
Solutions, Anatomy & Physiology, English, Spanish,
Psychology, Dietetics, Hygiene and Sanitation, Materia-
Medica, Bacteriology, Operating Room Nursing, Obstetrics
Nursing, General Nursing, and Medical & Surgical Nursing.
Lectures were given by foreign doctors & nurses and Filipino
Nurses who have been to the United States
During these times, all nursing schools in the Philippines were diploma-granting programs
and are all based in hospitals. That is until the Filipino Nurses Association passed a
resolution in May 1946 for the establishment of a College of Nursing at the University of the
Philippines, effectively establishing Nursing as part of university education. As the
healthcare needs of the people continue to evolve so the Nursing Education in the country.
With the state’s aim to provide the best healthcare services to Filipinos and ensure the global
competitiveness of Filipino Nurses, laws were passed to implement and monitor standards
for Higher Education Institutions in educating Filipino Nurses. Curriculum and Instructions
were continually adjusted to reflect the changing healthcare needs and technological
advancement. This propelled the reputation of Filipino Nurses as one of the best in the
field. As a result, the Philippines is considered the largest global provider of nurses,
accounting for 25% of all overseas nurses and 85 percent of Filipino nurses employed
serving in one of more than 50 countries worldwide, owing to the country’s well-established
international nursing program. (Global Trade Magazine,
Philippine Nursing Curriculum yielded very few published studies that
discuss the curriculum itself. Most studies conducted focus on
migration as one of the driving forces of the development of the
country’s Nursing Curriculum

Though the Philippine Nursing Curriculum focuses on

adjusting to meet the global standards of care and has proven
to be highly effective in top-notch nurses, it also presented
wider issues such as the difficulty to bridge the gap in
providing the highest possible care between the “ideal”
situation and the “actual” situation that nursing students
experience in domestic clinical settings.
In 2018, James Ryan Reblando conducted a study to analyze a number of
nursing curricula from different countries including their requirements,
core competencies, and their contribution to the nursing profession as a
whole. His study concluded that the strength of the Philippine Nursing
Curriculum is its compliance with international standards, its teaching
strategies, and the assessment methods implemented to determine its
effectiveness. He also concluded that the current curriculum equips
nurses with the basic skills needed to be successful nurses and sufficient
preparation to help them advance in their careers. Ramirez (2001) also
concluded in his study that one of the strengths of the Philippine Nursing
Curriculum is the inclusion of General Education Courses grounded in
liberal arts which strengthens the character and values of the person as a
caregiver. Ramirez also identified Research as part of the curriculum that
needs to be updated. He suggested including a research practicum to
provide nurses with needed skills for evidence-based research and
advanced nursing practice.
 NURSING CURRICULUM
1.Philippine Nursing Curriculum utilizes Outcomes-Based Education
CHED Memorandum Order No. 15, Series of 2017 implements the shift
from competency-based standards to outcomes-based education in BS
Nursing in the Philippines. This put the student nurses at the core of
instruction and allowed nursing educators to continue to innovate ways to
engage the learners in relevant and responsive instruction. With outcome-
based standards, both nursing students and nurse educators are afforded
the benefits of clarity. The nursing student has a clear understanding of
what is expected of them at the end of the course. This also afforded
educators the freedom to use various teaching methods and assessment
techniques. One of the best benefits of the shift to outcomes-based
education in nursing is the continuity of education standards. Though
different HEIs have the academic freedom to adjust their curriculum based
on their mission and use different teaching strategies, all nursing students
on the same level in their education are expected to demonstrate the
same outcome.
 The philippine Nursing Curriculum focuses on the Global Competitiveness of
Filipino Nurses
Most of the available literature on the subject talks about how the Philippine
government and Education Regulatory Agencies create policies that are
always aligned with the International Standards giving Filipino Nurses an
edge over nurses from other countries. Topics that were relevant in the
United States and other first-world countries were incorporated into the
Philippine Nursing Curriculum (Eder, 2016) to be “consistent with the latest
trends in higher education abroad” (Choy, 2003, p. 53). The Philippine
Development Plan (PDP) for 2017-2022 sees investment in education as the
key to strengthening human development outcomes and excelling in the
global knowledge economy. Furthermore, they also see Internationalization
as instrumental in improving the quality of education in the Philippines. The
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) being the regulatory body, sets out
the key policy for the internationalization of Philippine higher education,
which is firmly placed against the backdrop of the ASEAN Economic
Community and the country’s national plans (The Quality Assurance Agency
for Higher Education, 2018).
 CHED’s Strategic Plans for 2011-2016, one of their mandates is to
“promote relevant and quality higher education” by ensuring that
“higher education institutions and programs are at par with
international standards and graduates and professionals are highly
competent and recognized in the international arena” (CHED, n.d., p.
1). Eder (2016)
due to the high popularity of nursing among new college students,
which is driven by the high possibility of working overseas and high
earnings, the number of privately-run HEIs offering Nursing courses
has grown exponentially. The disproportion between the number of
new nurses and available jobs in the domestic labor market increased
the number of nurses leaving the country to work overseas.
Mandated by the Republic Act (RA) No. 7722, otherwise known as the
“Higher Education Act of 1994,” the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED) carries out its function of establishing a complete, adequate, and
integrated system of higher education that (a) promotes relevant and quality
higher education, (b) ensures access to quality higher education, (c)
guarantees and protects academic freedom for continuing intellectual growth,
advancement of learning and research, development of responsible and
effective leadership, education of high-level professionals, enrichment of
historical and cultural heritages, and (d) commits to moral ascendancy that
eradicates corrupt practices, institutionalizes transparency and accountability
and encourages participatory governance.