2024-03-20 23:59:07
Judging the examination of the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ) too difficult or too restrictive, they become members of a professional order in another province such as New Brunswick or Ontario to take another exam, the NCLEX-RN. This American test being recognized by Quebec, they then return to practice in the province.
We were the first wave of students who wanted to register in New Brunswick to take the NCLEX-RN. There were really a lot of requests, we made a lot of calls, it was a bit like a race against time, explains Joanie, who now practices in Abitibi-Témiscamingue as a nurse.
The first names in this article are fictitious to respect the anonymity of the nurses interviewed due to their still active employment relationships.
Joanie says she failed the College of Nursing exam twice. She was part of this cohort in 2022, a year when the success rate was 51.4% in the province. Last September, the success rate for the Order’s exam reached 69%.
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Nearly half of the 3,000 nurses who took the exam in September 2022 had to take it again to obtain their right to practice. (Archive photo)
Photo : iStock
Along with several other students, she decided to do research to find another solution.
They then heard about the NCLEX-RN, an exam equivalent to that of the Order in Quebec and which is used by the majority of Canadian provinces and the United States. In the United States, the success rate was 88.5% in 2023.
Since you must first be a member of a professional order before you can take this exam, they joined the New Brunswick Nurses Association. However, it was not necessary to go there in person since the exam can be done in Quebec or Ontario.
Joanie and several colleagues successfully passed the NCLEX-RN and obtained their right to practice in New Brunswick. A nurse registered in another province can have her practice license transferred to Quebec, which Joanie did.
A group on the social network Facebook was created to inform other future nurses of this possibility. The group has more than 3,500 members, a sign of growing interest.
That’s where it really took off. It was a race against time, everyone signed up, wanted to know how it worked, what should they do? We wrote down all the procedures and the wave really took off, explains Joanie.
I really questioned myself when I ran the test, because it was clear that there was something that wasn’t working. When there are so many people sinking, we suspected that it was perhaps not us who were incompetent, adds Émilie, another nurse who practices in Quebec, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, and who made the choice to take the NCLEX-RN exam after two failures.
It seems to be getting bigger
The Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue confirms that around twenty of its students have become members of the Order of Nurses of New Brunswick over the last two years. The Cégep specifies that it has also noted that others have gone through Ontario to take the NCLEX-RN but that this data is not recorded. Around thirty students graduate on average each year in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
At the very beginning, we might have thought that it was marginal, but it seems to be gaining momentum. This is a number that seems quite significant to me, explains the general director of the Cégep, Sylvain Blais.
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Sylvain Blais believes that we must look into this delicate situation. (Archive photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Emily Blais
It is worrying when we see that our own graduates want to take their exam in another province than at the Order, which is responsible for the province. The Order of Nurses is already in question, but I think it is an additional variable to take into account.
The Order of Nurses of New Brunswick has confirmed that it has approved 74 requests from Quebecers who wish to take the famous test over the last two months, since January 15, 2024.
Many advantages
Three nurses practicing in Quebec who did not take the OIIQ exam confided that the NCLEX-RN has several advantages for them.
The NCLEX, there are many exam choices. Just in the month of March, I think there were about ten possibilities to do it. There are some every week. It took me 45 minutes to do my exam, says Sabrina, who has never taken the Order of Nurses exam. This exam is offered twice a year, in March and September.
It’s not tempting to want to take the exam with the disastrous pass rate, so as soon as I graduated, I chose to take the NCLEX, she says.
Unlike the Quebec exam, the NCLEX-RN exam is taken on a computer. And the result is known the next day, whereas it takes one to two months in Quebec before knowing its result.
Sabrina believes that she was able to start her practice much earlier than if she had gone through Quebec. From the moment I took my exam, in 48 hours, I was a nurse, whereas with the OIIQ, it’s two months, she says.
If you fail the NCLEX-RN, it is possible to take it again 45 days later.
The Order of Nurses refuses to react
Asked to react on the subject, the Order of Nurses of Quebec declined our interview request.
In a very short email, the organization responds that the situation arises from the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. This allows a person holding a nursing permit in one Canadian province to obtain an equivalence in another province. The available data unfortunately does not allow us to accurately count the number of Quebecers who take advantage of this option each year, the email specifies.
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The success rate for the Order’s exam reached 69% in September 2023. (Archive photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada
In May 2023, the Order of Nurses of Quebec announced that it wanted to use the NCLEX-RN in 2024, like the other provinces, before giving it up last February.
The Office des professions du Québec mandated former Ombudsman Marie Rinfret to help the Order of Nurses review its admissions exam, the validity and reliability of which have been called into question.
Asked to react to the fact that more and more nurses are choosing to ignore the exam, the Order provided no response, only mentioning that the NCLEX-RN exam is not the exam used in Quebec and that it is not a condition of admission to the profession.
Fear of departures
The president of the union of the Interprofessional Health Federation in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Jean-Sébastien Blais, is worried that nurses will take advantage of this to go and practice in other provinces. He also questions the fact that the success rate of the NCLEX-RN is higher even though it is aimed at holders of a baccalaureate.
So, we have nurses who have completed a DEC who are going to take an exam aimed at university nurses. They are not succeeding in Quebec, which is aimed at DEC holders, and they are going to succeed in other provinces. It’s still quite special and it puts the whole investigation that is currently going on into the Order of Nurses into perspective, he maintains. According to him, the Order of Nurses of Quebec must question itself.
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Jean-Sébastien Blais, president of FIQ-SISSAT, the union of the Interprofessional Health Care Federation of Abitibi-Témiscamingue. (Archive photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Emily Blais
Their main role is to protect citizens, but if we deprive ourselves of nurses who would have passed this exam and who will perhaps want to reorient their career after three failures in Quebec […], is the Order really fulfilling its mission when it deprives us of healthcare professionals who are effective in the field? asks Jean-Sébastien Blais.
We realize that they continue to practice here, but until when? This is what concerns me in this sense. If they are ready to take the exam elsewhere, they could start thinking about practicing elsewhere, adds the general director of Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Sylvain Blais.
The offices of the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, and the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, reacted jointly by email Wednesday evening.
The important thing is to ensure that all qualified nurses can join the network and come to lend a hand. This is why we appointed Marie Rinfret, former Ombudsman, to the position of controller at the OIIQ last November, in addition to the independent evaluation expert to supervise the grading of exams. Currently, the OIIQ is collaborating. Ms. Rinfret makes sure he follows his action plan. Efforts must continue to rectify the situation regarding admission to the Order as well as to modernize the college nursing training program, they wrote.
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