Nursing programme failure rate not unique to Guyana – Chief Nursing Officer

Jun 05, 2014 News

Although a high failure rate always brings with it some concerns, Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), Tarmattie Barker, has asserted that such a development at the local nursing programme level should not be seen as unique to Guyana. Barker was at the time lending her voice to concerns raised about the daunting failure rate obtained when the results of the nursing programme were unveiled last year.

Chief Nursing Officer, Tarmattie Barker

According to her, there have been reports coming out from the Caribbean that nursing programmes there have in the past attracted disparaging results. “Some of our (Caribbean) colleagues have said that their failure rate was like a disaster when they introduced a new programme and they have encouraged us to not be discouraged because these things do happen,” said Barker.
When the results of the nursing programme were unveiled last year it reflected a damning failure rate from nursing schools across the country. While there are three nursing schools that fall under the purview of the Ministry of Health – the Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Charles Roza – there is also another delivered by the St Joseph Mercy Hospital. All of these schools had similar results.
Based on the available statistics, a total of 23 of the 276 who wrote the professional nursing programme failed “outright” while those who passed “outright” amounted to 31.
And according to Barker those who failed last year are entitled to two more attempts as recommended by the Nursing Council.
In her attempt to decipher the failing situation, Barker noted that the off-putting development might have been linked to the fact that the nursing programme last year was based on a new curriculum and therefore may require some revision to realise improved results. However, she disclosed that there might have been some other issues which could have affected the delivery of the curriculum.
She moreover alluded to the growing number of nursing students, pointing out that this aspect could be examined although, according to her, “it is not that we don’t want to have large numbers because globally efforts are being made to teach a large number of (nursing) students.”
Barker also speculated about other measures such as infrastructure to accommodate the growing number of students as well as the needful faculty. And the faculty is one of the especially needed factors that must be addressed Barker said, even as she noted that “we need to build our tutoring capacity. We have been utilising part-time lectures; it is not that we don’t have lectures but because of the number of students we need the part-time lectures as well to fill the gap.”
The part-time lecturers, according to Barker, are mostly required to deliver special support courses such as psychology and sociology.
The nursing schools, according to the CNO, usually have a twice-yearly (March and September) intake of students for courses in professional nursing, nursing assistant and midwifery.
She explained that nurses are taken on board for training through a recruitment process which starts with a placement of an advertisement by the Ministry of Health which details a date when all applications must be submitted.
The process, according to Barker, is a collaborative effort between the Ministry and the Health Sciences Education Division.
Those who are short-listed are then interviewed in order to determine their suitability for the various nursing programmes.
And according to Barker, only the well qualified applicants are accepted into the programmes. For instance, applicants desirous of participating in the Professional Nursing programme must have at least five CXC subjects, while for the Nursing Assistant programme the requirements are three CXC subjects.
And once the post basic training is completed, persons can opt to delve into the midwifery programme. “We have been having quite a large number of persons with the requirements…it is not that we don’t have persons who don’t reach the requirements,” said Barker of the nurses in training.
Over the past few years, the CNO, without precisely stating the figure, pointed out that the intake numbers have been growing significantly in every category of nursing training. She disclosed that although there is a stipulated cut-off point “sometimes we end up having a few more.”
However, she observed that the most recent intake of trainee nurses revealed that this trend is reversing.
Turning her attention to the quality of nursing professionals who have been plugged into the system over the years, Barker noted that while the nurses are academically fit there are some who require additional training and practice to develop the necessary attitude and attributes of a good nurse. “I think one of the things we haven’t got a lot of, is the kind of attitudes we need, but with training, at the end they are supposed to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to be the nurses that we want them to be,” said Barker.