Contrary to the recommendation of the commissioner for admission to professions, the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ) announces that it is maintaining the holding of its next exam scheduled for March. However, candidates for the profession will have the choice of participating or waiting until next fall.
During the publication of a progress report last week, the commissioner who is investigating the abnormally high failure rate of the last examination of the OIIQ had suggested a postponement of the next test. Me André Gariépy wanted to take the time to shed light on the reasons for the high failure rate before the order repeats the exercise.
Following a week of reflection, the Order reached a compromise on Wednesday by offering candidates for the practice of the nursing profession (CEPI) the chance to take the March admission exam if they want it. The others will be able to wait and take the next exam scheduled for September 2023.
Normally, the CEPIs have the obligation to register for the admission to the profession examination as soon as it occurs, failing which they are attributed a failure.
In a press release, the OIIQ explains that “this decision allows the option of postponing the date of the examination for CEPIs who do not feel able to take the professional examination or who wish to wait for the conclusion of the ‘investigation “.
Pending their participation in a future examination, these CEPIs will be able to continue working in the health network according to the regulatory standards in place.
OIIQ President Luc Mathieu explains that canceling or postponing the exam to an indefinite date was not an option.
“Someone who is a candidate for the exercise of the profession is not someone in full exercise. On the one hand, it requires closer supervision and already in the health network in terms of available resources it is limited. There, it would be for an indefinite period, ”he underlines.
Furthermore, in another recommendation, Commissioner Gariépy proposed offering a final chance to pass the admission to the profession examination to candidates who failed for the third time last fall. The OIIQ confirms that it is responding to this request. According to the current rules, a third failure of the OIIQ exam results in exclusion and prevents the candidate from becoming a nurse.
At the same time, the OIIQ undertakes to “restore the right to practice as a CEPI to persons who have obtained a third failure in the September 2022 exam” or whose deadline for passing the exam has expired. last fall.
This is an exception that only applies to the 148 people concerned. The OIIQ does not intend to erase the failure from the record of the other CEPIs.
Luc Mathieu says that after three attempts, a very large majority of aspiring nurses manage to obtain a passing grade on the exam.
Health Minister Christian Dubé welcomed the OIIQ’s decision in a comment posted on Twitter. According to him, the compromise and the measures announced will make it possible to “promote the success of our future nurses”, which the network badly needs in times of labor shortage.
Low success rate
Last September, only 51.4% of candidates who tried their luck for the first time obtained the pass mark of 55% on the exam. In the wake of the controversy raised by this disproportionate failure rate, commissioner Me André Gariépy opened an investigation into the reasons that led to this fiasco.
At the time of the unveiling of the results, the OIIQ had blamed the context of the pandemic for justifying an inadequate learning or preparation framework for the exam for students in the various nursing programs.
If we follow this logic, the next cohort due to take the exam in March may also hit a wall. These future CEPIs were also trained in large part during the pandemic. This reality also weighed in the reflection of the Order.
“It hit everyone hard, in all spheres of activity. In teaching environments, it took some time to adjust teaching methods. There was a lot less exposure to clinical simulation laboratories and internship environments,” recalls Luc Mathieu.
He also points out that many female students lent a hand during the mass vaccination campaign throughout Quebec. Hours spent protecting the population against the virus, but so many hours that were not devoted to their clinical learning.
Luc Mathieu insists on the fact that the OIIQ exam has not changed and that it is wrong to claim that it favors female university students to the detriment of college students.
“The exam of the Order, it has not changed since 2018. It is the same structure, the same form. These are the same people who contribute to developing the clinical situations and who develop the questions that arise from them,” he says.
In his progress report published last week, the commissioner for admission to professions indicates that he noted “worrying elements both on the examination and on the training of candidates”. He specified that the general success rate, including candidates who had already failed in the past, was even lower at 45.4%.
By way of comparison, the overall pass rate has varied between 63% and 96% since the creation of this exam format in 2018.
Me Gariépy relies on two hypotheses that can explain the impressive failure rate. On the one hand, either “the examination has methodological flaws” or on the other hand “the training of the candidates, or some of them, did not prepare them adequately”. A combination of the two factors could also be involved.
The commissioner thus argues that “candidates have probably suffered harm in their career path”. In a response sent by email, Mr. Gariépy confirmed having received the response from the OIIQ, but did not want to comment while his investigation is ongoing.
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