(Montreal) The Commissioner for Admissions to Professions recommends postponing the next Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ) exam. He also suggests granting a reprieve to candidates who have suffered their third and final exam failure.
Posted at 5:38pm
Ugo Giguere The Canadian Press
Following the controversy over a disproportionate failure rate in the last exam for admission to the nursing profession, Commissioner Me André Gariépy was asked to investigate the reasons that led to this fiasco.
Last September, 51% of the candidates who tried their luck failed the exam with a 55%.
At the time the results were announced, the OIIQ had blamed the context of the pandemic for justifying an inadequate learning or exam preparation framework for students in the various nursing programs.
For comparison: The pass rate for the last exam in March 2022 was 71%. If we go back a little further, the success rate reached 81% in September 2021.
On Wednesday, as part of his investigation, the commissioner released a status report to make two recommendations. In particular, he suggests postponing the retreat scheduled for March 2023 so that we can first shed light on last fall’s results.
Mr. Gariépy notes that the work he has done so far reveals “worrying elements both in the examination and in the training of the candidates”.
The starting point of his investigation are two hypotheses that could explain the impressive failure rate. On the one hand, either “the examination has methodological deficiencies” or, on the other hand, “the training of the candidates is not sufficiently prepared in some cases”. A combination of the two factors could also play a role.
The commissioner for admissions to the profession argues that “candidates are likely to have suffered damage in their career path”.
recommendations
In his progress report, Me André Gariépy reiterates that “it would be unwise to oblige a candidate to come to the next exam session” before we know what went wrong in the autumn.
In addition, the officer recommends “precautionary measures” for people who have been excluded from the admissions process due to a third-party failure. More than 200 candidates would be affected by these measures.
“Given the current state of knowledge of the situation, existing concerns and in the context of the pressure on healthcare workers, it would be unfair to definitively exclude from the admissions process the candidates who failed a third time at the September 2022 session,” we can in one Read the quote attributed to Me Gariépy in the progress report press release.
The commissioner suggests giving them another try at the next exam and “reestablishing their status (candidate to practice nursing)” until they can try their luck again.
The OIIQ did not want to react to the publication of the progress report or to its recommendations. We want to take the time to read the document and discuss it internally before making a decision.
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