The Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ) announces that in the future it will use an admission exam other than its own, used elsewhere in Canada and the United States. He will make the request to the Office des professions du Québec in the coming days in order to be able to use it from 2024.
The president of the OIIQ, Luc Mathieu, made the announcement during a press briefing held on Thursday, following an investigation report by the commissioner for admission to professions, which reported on Tuesday “flaws” and “weaknesses” in last September’s review. The success rate was only 51.4%.
In his report made public on Tuesday, the commissioner for admission to professions Me André Gariépy concluded that “the flaws and weaknesses of the exam likely contributed to the unusually low pass rate of the September 2022 session”. His team estimated that more than 500 candidates would have passed rather than failed the September 2022 exam if the OIIQ had not added a measurement error, which increased the passing score from 49 to 53%.
During the press briefing, the president of the OIIQ acknowledged that his examination could be “improved”. He pointed out that work had begun on this subject in 2021, well before the commissioner’s investigation, with the aim of making the examination “more robust on certain dimensions”.
However, the OIIQ denies having had “confidence concerns” regarding its examination, as the commissioner indicates in his report. He also rejects the commissioner’s recommendation to recalculate the marks from last September’s exam without adding any measurement error.
The OIIQ says it has studied the issue with the contribution of clinical experts, as recommended by the commissioner. They determined that the pass mark “must be greater than 49% to ensure adequate protection of the public,” it was explained during the press briefing.
“It is not true to say that we are depriving the network of 500 people,” repeated Luc Mathieu. He said that of the 475 failing candidates who registered for the retake exam in March 2023, 70% passed the test. The success rate for this exam will be known next week.
No more failures due to COVID-19
The OIIQ believes that the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in the high failure rate of candidates for the profession during the exam. “Clinical settings were under pressure during the pandemic. The supervision [des étudiants] was deficient at certain levels,” said Luc Mathieu.
He added that female students were less exposed to clinical situations because they were mobilized for vaccination campaigns. “It’s not blaming anyone,” he said. If you are less prepared, it may be normal for the exam to have a failure rate like that. »
During the press briefing, Luc Mathieu recalled that the Order’s mission is to protect the population. “Our goal is not to admit as many professionals as possible, but suitable professionals, that is to say, capable of providing the right care, at the right time, in the right way. »
