The success rate for the examination of the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ), held in September, reached 69% among those who took it for the first time. This is a clear improvement compared to the September 2022 test during which almost half of the candidates for the profession failed.
The OIIQ has been under close surveillance for several months due to the low pass rate for its September 2022 exam, i.e. 51.4%. After carrying out an investigation, the commissioner for the admission of professions, André Gariépy, reported last May the “flaws and [l]”fragilities” of the test, the reliability of which was “low”, according to him. He called on the OIIQ to correct the situation in its third and final report made public in October.
Minister Sonia LeBel indicated that she is keeping an eye on the OIIQ. Two weeks ago, the Office des professions du Québec appointed former Québec Ombudsman Marie Rinfret as “accompanist” of the OIIQ so that she could support “the order in the process of revising its examination of admission to the profession and improvement of its governance”. An “independent specialist in measurement and evaluation” also “supervised” the correction of the September 2023 exam.
Nearly a quarter of candidates for the practice of the nursing profession (CEPI) chose not to take the exam last September, preferring to take it in March 2024, when the OIIQ originally planned , adopt a new test format (NCLEX-RN), used in the United States and elsewhere in Canada. According to the Commissioner for the Admission of Professions, this timetable is “unrealistic”. This examination can only be implemented “in a few years”, he estimates.
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