Quebec nurses’ order announces new exam after flaws found with last one

MONTREAL – The Order of Quebec Nurses (OIIQ) reacted Thursday to harsh criticism of its examination for entry into the profession. It rejects allegations that it unfairly failed 500 candidates, but says it will be adopting a new exam starting in the spring of 2024.

OIIQ President Luc Mathieu announced that the order will rely on the “NCLEX-RN” starting next year. This acronym refers to the “National Council Licensure Examination for RN”, which is the examination of the national committee for access to the nursing profession. This is the exam used in the United States and elsewhere in Canada to obtain a license to practice.

The current format will remain for the next session scheduled for the fall of 2023. Another cohort also faced the controversial exam last month. The results are expected to be released in the coming weeks. The order says that 70 per cent of candidates who failed in September 2022 passed their retakes last March.

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With regard to the criticisms contained in the second progress report of the inquiry by André Gariépy, the Admission Commissioner, unveiled on Tuesday, the OIIQ believes that the latter is mistaken in claiming that 500 candidates should have obtained a passing grade if the “measurement error” factor had not been applied.

According to the order, the base passing score on the exam was 49 per cent, which was increased to 53 per cent by adding the measurement error. However, after conducting a review exercise with a committee of experts in recent months, as stipulated in one of the Commissioner’s recommendations, the suggested score should have been even higher.

According to Luc Mathieu, if the OIIQ were to go ahead with this recalculation recommendation, hundreds of nurses on duty would lose their right to practice.

Among other major flaws in the examination, the Commissioner had also pointed out that more than 12 per cent of the questions had problems of construction or clarity. The OIIQ again rejects this conclusion and says that other experts reviewed the questions before concluding that they could be difficult, but that this “reflects the complexity” of the profession.

According to the OIIQ, the NCLEX-RN will offer several advantages to candidates to the profession. They will be able to write it as many times as necessary to pass it within a four-year period.

Candidates who have exhausted their three chances to pass the current exam by September of this year will be able to take advantage of transitional measures to write the NCLEX-RN.

In addition, sessions should be offered throughout Quebec to avoid travel. Since the exam is computer-based, the results should be easier to calculate.

President Luc Mathieu also pointed out that this is a proven tool, since it was created in 1994 and has been administered to over six million aspiring nurses in North America.

In order to proceed with this change of examination, the OIIQ will submit a request to the Office des professions du Québec.

This decision seems to vindicate the criticisms of the Commissioner who questioned the validity and reliability of the test used by the order. Its president, Luc Mathieu, points out, however, that the work was started several years ago.

Gariépy’s report revealed that the OIIQ knew since at least 2018 that the reliability of its exam was rather low.

It was the catastrophic results of the fall 2022 entrance exam to the profession that prompted Commissioner André Gariépy to launch an investigation. Less than 45.4 per cent of candidates had obtained a passing grade.

Since the announcement of these results, the OIIQ has been blaming the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that the students did not receive adequate training.

– This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 11, 2023.