Nursing programme standards cannot be compromised

May 30, 2017 News

– Health Education Director insists
…but education system being blamed for producing substandard students

“The people who are involved in the training of doctors, lawyers and the other professional categories do not compromise their standards and we cannot compromise ours.”

Mr Wilton Benn, Director of Health Education

This was the assertion of Mr. Wilton Benn, Director of the Ministry of Public’s Health Education Department.
Benn was at the time addressing the quality of students accepted for the nursing programme which has been in the spotlight, following the appalling failure rate at the most recent Professional Nurses State Finals examination.
The State Finals were first conducted in December of last year, but it was found that the examination papers were leaked ahead of the administration of the examination, thus compromising the results.
The results of the subsequent re-sit of the examination translated to a mere 23 students gaining overall passes of the 179 candidates who participated. The candidates were drawn from all of the country’s schools of nursing including the Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Charles Roza Schools of Nursing and the privately-operated St Joseph Hospital School of Nursing.
Many have concluded that the state of affairs has been linked to the quality of students accepted for training. But Benn is adamant that this is no fault of those responsible for Health Education. In fact, he insisted “we take very serious the people who we admit in our programme and we take very seriously our image…”
Benn remained unyielding in his stance, even when asked about reported occasions when individuals without the requisite qualifications were accepted to undergo nursing training.
One official recently informed this publication that some persons were accepted for training because of their reported “connections”.
However Benn stressed, “By and large the deciding factor has to be the minimum level requirements.” He added, “I have personally taken a stance in the past and will continue to do so as far as it relates to making sure that we stick with whatever are the requirements, so that our approach is not compromised by those things.”
“If a request is made and persons do not meet the entry requirements, my people will not accept them, even if that does not please whoever the ‘powers’ might be,” Benn asserted.
This publication was reliably informed that efforts were being made to ensure that persons seeking to undertake the Nursing Assistant programme had to have no less than three Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) subjects, inclusive of English Language, while those aspiring to become Professional Nurses were required to have at least five CXC passes, inclusive of Mathematics, English Language and a Science subject.
According to Benn, “I can account for my period of stewardship from somewhere around 2011- 2012 and we have consistently paid attention to make sure that our people are capable of matriculation to the University of Guyana, or any other academic institution of higher learning, so it is a fallacy that has been propagated that the students do not possess the minimum qualification.”
Benn’s remarks were supported by another senior health functionary who revealed “the Ministry has consistently increased the bar for those seeking to enter the nursing programme. Other than those entering the Nursing Assistant programme, the majority of students entering the professional nursing programme have between five to eight CXC subjects with good grades…”
There have however been reports that the Ministry has been accepting a small number of students without Mathematics from interior locations.
But such small areas of compromise have not been responsible for the troubling performances. An official close to the Public Health Ministry told this publication earlier this year, “There is something more troubling that is happening, and it is not just something wrong with the students…this is far reaching.”
The official was at the time alluding to the public education system. This notion has been completely embraced by Benn. He pointed out that although efforts are made to enroll individuals of the highest standard in relation to the measure that exists; this measure is the CXC passes that come from the education sector. He moreover underscored, “the education system generally is contributing to some of what we see in the system. If you speak to educators from places like the Cyril Potter College of Education, and even people from the University of Guyana – that is supposed to be the premier learning institution – they will tell you that there seems to be some problems in relation to the preparation of our people.”
It was recognized that the challenge that nurses experienced during the re-sit earlier this year was that of higher order reasoning such as explaining and evaluating.
Benn moreover shared his observation that “this is happening across the board…it is not in nursing alone that these things are happening. There is clearly some weaknesses to the education system and the students of the schools of nursing represent a microcosm of the society.”