DPH gives one more year to Fijian midwives

The four remaining Fijian midwives at the Commonwealth Health Services are likely to stay for another year after the Commonwealth Board of Nurse Examiners gave local nurses an additional year to pass the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX.

In an interview last week, Department of Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez expressed his gratitude to the board for giving not only the Fijian midwives but also the other nurses more time to complete the NCLEX requirement.

“We acknowledge the Nursing Board for realizing our needs,” he said.

Villagomez said he is currently meeting with the Attorney General’s Office on the Fijian midwives and the appropriate license they need to practice their profession in the Commonwealth.

“We will develop that new act before next year,” said Villagomez.

The DPH secretary earlier said he would review the status of the Fijian midwives and look at a way to retain their services, which would mean adopting a new set of licensing regulations for them.

Currently the midwives are covered under the nursing licensing requirement of the hospital.

The nurse examiners board, at the request of chairwoman Rosa Tudela early this month, extended the NCLEX passage deadline for CNMI nurses from June 30, 2006 to the same date in 2007.

Accordingly, the nurses’ current licenses were also extended.

The board said the order addresses any confusion caused by the transition from the old Nursing Act to the 2005 Nursing Act, particularly with regard to the dates by which nurses and other licensees working under a provisional license must have passed the NCLEX.

According to the board, many nurses working in the CNMI with provisional foreign endorsement licensees issued prior to passage of the 2005 Nurse Practice Act were required to take and pass the NCLEX by June 30, 2006. Others were given until June 30, 2007 to pass the exam.

The board noted that June 30, 2006, is only a few months away. The change in law may have confused some nurses and given them little time to prepare for the deadline.

The agency also pointed out that there were currently no active rules or regulations implementing the 2005 nursing law, which repealed the 2003 act. This aroused doubt about whether the board’s requirements under the old regulations were still applicable.

To eliminate this doubt, the board combined the two deadlines and set June 30, 2007 as the firm date for NCLEX passage. The extension will also give all nurses plenty of time to prepare for, take, and pass the NCLEX.

“Thus, the board declares all persons subject to the act and who are holders of a license by endorsement or other provisional license requiring passage of NCLEX, shall take and pass the NCLEX by June 30, 2007 and that their licenses and endorsements shall not expire before that date, subject, of course, to other non-NMCLEX provisions of the act,” the order read.

There were originally 12 Fijian midwives serving at the hospital. Four resigned last year, while four have foreign endorsement licenses that expired last June. Four other Fijian midwives were supposed to have their foreign endorsement licenses expire this year and two will have their licenses expire in 2007.

In order for them to remain at the hospital the regulations are requiring the Fijian midwives to take and pass the NCLEX exam.

Earlier reports said that under the law, a nurse or midwife could practice in the CNMI for a maximum of four years without taking the NCLEX exam, so long as they are licensed by foreign endorsement. After that period, they must take and pass the NCLEX.