UP urged to offer nursing program in Mindanao campus

MANILA, Philippines — To address the critical shortage of nurses in the country, a House lawmaker has urged the University of the Philippines to introduce a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at its Mindanao unit.

Rep. Luis Campos (Makati City, 2nd District), a vice chairperson of the House appropriations committee, said that the lower chamber was "prepared to support UP with additional funding" for the establishment of a nursing school in Mindanao.

“Now that UP has decided to launch a Doctor of Medicine program in its Mindanao campus, the university might as well also offer a BSN program there,” Campos said in a statement on Sunday.

The lawmaker said he is counting on UP and state universities and colleges (SUCs) “to invest aggressively in the country’s future nursing workforce” amid the projected shortage of nurses nationwide and globally.

Campos previously filed House Resolution 1510, which sought a P1 billion special education fund to enable SUCs that still do not offer a nursing program to start their own nursing schools.

According to the House resolution, less than half or 44 out of 117 SUCs have nursing schools.

UP President Angelo Jimenez recently announced that the country's premiere state university will begin accepting students for its Doctor of Medicine program in its Mindanao campus in Mintal, Davao City starting academic year 2025-2026.

In 2023, as a response to the shortage of nurses in hospitals, Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Popoy De Vera proposed the offering of shorter certificate programs designed to produce hireable nursing assistants and nursing aides. 

De Vera said that the commission’s “medium-term plan” to produce more nursing professionals is a nursing curriculum that will offer its graduates early exit credentials after a year or two years.

The CHED chair said that the country’s need for more nurses is “not all university graduates” and that graduates with “intermediate credentials” can benefit from these to find jobs in the field. — Cristina Chi