Rebelote in the examination of the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ), which again recorded a disproportionate failure rate during its last edition last March, it was announced on Monday.
The pass rate for the March exam for candidates taking it for the first time was 53.3%, while that for graduates outside Canada was 37%. This low pass rate is reminiscent of the September exam, where only 51.4% of candidates achieved a passing grade.
In November, the commissioner for admission to professions, Me André Gariépy, was responsible for investigating the reasons that led to this abnormally high failure rate. He revealed last Tuesday that the exam of the Order has flaws and calls into question the quality of the questions and the passing marks raised without sufficient justification.
After reviewing the September 2022 exam, the OIIQ determined that five questions could have been improved, but that none contained a construction error. The president of the Order, Luc Mathieu, said Thursday that the students “were not well enough prepared to take the exam” in September, blaming the pandemic.
New examination from 2024
By agreeing that certain elements of the current exam needed to be improved, the OIIQ announced Thursday that it will replace its admission exam in 2024 with the NCLEX-RN exam, used in the other Canadian provinces and in the United States. .
Until now, candidates could not take the exam more than three times. With the NCLEX-RN exam, designed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), students will be able to take as many tries as possible over a four-year period.
The exam scheduled for September 2023 will, however, retain its current form. Certain questions deemed problematic in the commissioner’s investigation will, however, be reviewed. The exam, which consists of around 100 multiple-choice questions, lasts an entire day.