Three months after their professional lives were placed in limbo, student nurses across the country are breathing a sigh of relief as the Ministry of Public Health has finally decided on the way forward.
The 150 student nurses who wrote the multiple choice aspect of the 2016 State Final Examination for Professional Nurses have been asked to re-sit that examination on February 21. Last November, final-year nursing students were in tears after they were told that they would have to re-sit their final examinations since the Nursing Council had tangible evidence that the tests had been “compromised.”
The nurses objected to this decision asking that the council provide evidence of this compromise. Former Minister of Public Health Dr George Norton, after being approached by the students and having consulted with the Chairman of the Nursing Council, the Director of the Division of Health Science Education and the Principal Tutor of the Georgetown Nursing School decided that the nurses would not be asked to re-sit these examinations “until a proper investigation is completed” into allegations that the examination papers were being sold.
Yesterday, Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence told media operatives that after holding discussions with student representatives and the General Nursing Council an agreement was reached to move forward with future examinations.
As part of this agreement the Ministry of Education will now engage its personnel on behalf of the Ministry of Public Health to prepare, administer and mark the multiple choice questions.
Lawrence also explained that persons will be recruited to mark the essay part of the examinations first written on October 19 and October 20, 2016.
It is expected that the results from both sets of marking will be presented to the Ministry of Public Health on February 28 and made available to the students by March 2, 2017.
Asked to comment on the impact the delay has had on them, Student Representative Vibert Forde said the students have been in a disturbed emotional state.
“We’ve been advised to work on clinical areas. It has been stressful and disturbing and it [the resolution] seems fair. This will benefit us the students and nursing professionals,” he said.
Meanwhile, the police investigation into the alleged leak of the papers continues.
Norton had said that the investigation had implicated the Nursing Council and would be completed when one official integral to the investigation returned from outside of the jurisdiction. However, yesterday, Lawrence not only said that the official has not returned to the country but is not attached to the council.
Asked whether the official was attached to the Ministry of Public Health official, Lawrence said it is assumed that the person under question was attached to the Guyana Police Force.
Stabroek News has however learnt that the police are currently pursuing an individual who has fled the country. It is not clear how this individual, who reportedly worked at the Texila American University, would have been in possession of the papers.
