Former Citizen Ombudsman Marie Rinfret obtains the mandate to support the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ) in its work concerning the revision of its professional examination as well as in the improvement of its governance.
The Professions Office announced the appointment of Mme Rinfret via press release, Wednesday afternoon. On October 17, the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, served an ultimatum to the OIIQ which did not seem to react seriously to the criticisms and recommendations made in the reports of the Commissioner for Admission to Professions.
Minister LeBel then asked the Office of Professions to appoint a governance controller in order to force the OIIQ to act. Marie Rinfret will have to report on a monthly basis and if progress is deemed unsatisfactory, the minister has already warned that she will not hesitate to decree guardianship.
In the press release released Wednesday, the Office des professions said it exercises “tight control over the independent and objective supervision of the examination process and setting of the passing score” of the OIIQ.
“The Office ensures a dynamic presence with the order and is pleased to count on the expertise and competence of Mr.me Rinfret to support the order in the sustainable recovery of its activities”, we can read in a quote attributed to the president of the Office of Professions, Dominique Derome.
Before losing patience and imposing her ultimatum, Minister LeBel first requested the appointment of an independent specialist to support the order in its work to improve its professional examination. This person is notably responsible for supervising the correction of the September 2023 exam, the results of which are still not known.
In an interview with The Canadian Press last month, Sonia LeBel openly said she doubted the ability of the OIIQ to act and govern itself correctly. She explained that she wanted to carefully document the state of affairs in order to justify possible placement under supervision, if this proved necessary to ensure the protection of the public and preserve confidence in the professional system.
A series of investigation reports from the Commissioner for Admission to Professions has shown that flaws in the methodology of the OIIQ exam and in the calculation of the passing score are to blame for explaining the failure rates. abnormally high for the September 2022 and March 2023 sessions.
However, since the start of the saga, the order has considered the failures as a consequence of the effects of the pandemic on the training of candidates. However, Commissioner Me André Gariépy concluded that this does not constitute “a generalizable, sufficient and conclusive explanation”. According to him, these are rather “impressions” formulated by the OIIQ resulting from an “apparent and intuitive logic”.
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