The Philippine Ambassador to Norway, Elizabeth Buensuceso, reported that a group of Filipino nurses working in Oslo met with Mr. John Earhart, Union Repre-sentative Coordinator of the Norwegian Nurses Association (Norsk Sykepleierforbund – NSF) on 23 December 2008 to formally submit an affidavit strongly refuting accusations which recently appeared in a local Norwegian daily, Dagsavisen, about alleged cheating during the 2002 nursing licensure exams in Oslo.

Said allegations first appeared in a 28 November article of Dagsavisen and then again in a 01 December article in the same tabloid. In one of the said articles, an anonymous and al-legedly Filipino nurse supposedly confessed about incidences of cheating by Fili-pino nurses during the above-mentioned licensure exam – an allegation strongly refuted by the Filipino nurses who took the said exam in 2002 and who personally appeared before NSF to dispel and complain about the said allegations.

The Filipino nurses who took the exam in 2002 were represented by Ms. Helen Locsin. Her repeated calls to Dagsavisen to try to get the tabloid to air their side of the story have been repeatedly rejected.

The articles have negatively affected the working conditions as well as prospects of Filipino nurses in Oslo who have been looked upon as reliable, hard-working, highly skilled, and knowledgeable professionals in the field. Since the two articles came out, incidences of discrimination have also been reported to the Philippine Embassy in Oslo which has thrown its full support behind the nurses. Employers of Filipino nurses have also thrown in their full support.

During the meeting with NSF, Mr. Earhart reassured the nurses, who were also members of the association, of its sup-port. He encouraged the group to report cases of discrimination to NSF since under Norwegian laws and regulations, deroga-tory news articles such as those released by Dagsavisen, cannot be the basis for job termination or rejection of job applications, which a number of Filipino nurses are currently experienc-ing due to said articles.

Mr. Earhart also pointed to paragraph three (3) of the NSF Resolution found in the NSF Principles & Guidelines booklet for the period 2008-2011. Under said paragraph, nurses and midwives with foreign education are eligible for NSF membership from the time that they apply for their Norwegian Authority. This membership will be valid from the time that said nurses or mid-wives await their authorization or while their theory in clinical classification is on-going. As such, upon membership, newly arrived nurses with job-seeker visas who are in the process of applying for work are classified as “Extraordinary Members” and can be assisted by NSF in their application process.

Mr. Earhart further said that Ms. Line Orlund, NSF’s Union Representative Coordinator for foreign nurses, would be glad to accompany the aggrieved Filipino nurses to Dagsavisen to formally submit the latter’s complaint. In parting, he further stressed how Filipino nurses were held in high esteem in the country and that no complaints about any Filipino nurse have reached NSF since its inception and since Filipino nurses started working in Norway.

Ambassador Elizabeth Buensuceso assigned Vice Consul Lenna Eilleen de Dios to represent the Embassy and witness the meeting between the Filipino nurses and NSF.

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