Even more nursing candidates have taken advantage of the second exemption offered by Quebec nurses' order, the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ), to skip this month's entrance exam.
For the second session in a row, hundreds of nursing candidates chose not to take the exam, which has seen abnormally low pass rates over the past year.
Of the 4,094 candidates invited to take the exam on Sept.18, a total of 949 decided to sit it out. This abstention rate of 23 per cent represents a slight increase from last spring.
In March, 2,803 candidates were invited to sit for the exam, 630 of whom took advantage of the exemption.
These exceptional measures stem from the fiasco around the September 2022 exam results. Barely 51.4 per cent of first-time candidates passed. In response, the Quebec commissioner responsible for admission to the professions, launched an investigation that led to the filing of a damning report casting doubt on the reliability of the exam.
The order justified the poor results by focusing on the context around how the candidates received their training. The new graduates had to learn how to do their job in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The OIIQ therefore offered a first right of exemption in the spring of 2023 to allow the commissioner to complete their work. The success rate of that session turned out to be only slightly higher at 53.8 per cent.
By way of comparison, success rates on the first attempt, between fall 2018 and spring 2022, ranged from 71 per cent to 96 per cent.
Then, following the tabling of two progress reports by the commissioner, the OIIQ announced its intention to scuttle its exam in order to adopt the one used in the United States, known by the acronym NCLEX-RN. The order then opted to offer a new exemption to any candidates who preferred to wait to take the American version.
This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on Sept. 7, 2023.
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