Funds eyed to make NMI nursing board profitable

Lawmakers are set to approve funding for the Commonwealth Board of Nurse Examiners after the agency recently disclosed that the Northern Marianas could make as much as $1 million from issuing certifications to Filipino nurses interested in taking the U.S. licensing test.

A joint committee of Senate and House members, which crafted the latest version of the fiscal year 2009 budget, has inserted a new provision appropriating $100,000 to the nursing board. With the money, the board is expected to hire an executive director and additional staff needed to make the nursing board “a revenue-generating program for the CNMI government,” states a report by the committee.

“Even though foreign nationals may take the NCLEX in places such as the Philippines, applicants must still get approval from the United States before taking the exam. This creates the potential for the CNMI to generate revenues. It has been reported that $100,000 in revenues were generated in FY2008 from this process, and there is a potential for as much as $1 million in annual revenues,” the committee report adds.

The CNMI has seen a huge drop in the number of nurses taking the National Council Licensure Examination since Manila started offering the test in August last year. But according to the local nursing board, the Northern Marianas can continue to profit from the NCLEX market by repositioning itself as a facilitation office for Filipino nurses who are seeking to be certified to take the test.

All nursing graduates are required to get the certification from a nursing board in the U.S. jurisdiction before they can take the NCLEX. Currently, the CNMI nursing board charges $110 for each certification. The fee differs from state to state.

Based on information from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, there are 20,410 nursing tests taken in Manila since the city was designated as an international NCLEX site in February 2007.

But the Commonwealth is losing out on this revenue-generating opportunity because the nursing board lacks the manpower to do process applications. The nursing board has only one full-time employee.

“We need manpower to do the work that needs to be done,” Bertha Camacho, a member of the nursing board, has said. She said the board needs funding for at least two administrative assistants and one clerk to ensure efficient processing of applications.