97 percent overall pass rate at Nurses State Finals

Nov 17, 2017 News

– Minister says improvement was due to delayed intervention

The screams that erupted from the East Street Georgetown parking lot at 14:22 hours yesterday were deafening, but they were not without a cause. They followed on the heels of an announcement by Senior Minister of Public Health, Ms Volda Lawrence, that the results of the Nurses State Finals examination had yielded a 97 percent overall pass rate.

Officials at the head table yesterday. Second from left is Senior Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, [third from right] Chief Nurse, Ms Tarmattie Barker, and Ms. Mandy LaFleur.

A total of five nursing schools participated in the examination – The Georgetown School of Nursing, New Amsterdam School of Nursing, Charles Roza School of Nursing and two privately operated schools – the St. Joseph Mercy School of Nursing and Texila American University.
Two of the five schools recorded a 100 percent pass rate – St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, which entered 26 candidates and the New Amsterdam School of Nursing which entered 35 candidates.
However the other schools were not slack in their performance. At the Georgetown School of Nursing the results were .7 percent shy of a perfect score. At total of 100 candidates were entered for the examination and their performance reflected a 99.3 percent pass rate. At the Charles Roza School of Nursing in Linden, the pass rate translated to 98 percent for the 52 students who wrote the State Finals. Texila University, which entered three candidates, realised a 75 percent pass rate.
Officials from each of the schools were tasked with detailing the performances of their respective schools. The State Finals entail candidates sitting Functional Nursing Paper One and Two, Clinical Nursing Paper One and Paper Two and Practical Nursing. While there were some candidates who completed all aspects of the examination there were some who only had to complete one or a few aspects.
The jubilation that the pass rates attracted was not at all surprising, given the fact that the last sitting of the State Finals last year was fraught with reports of students indulging in dishonest activities. The examination as a result became null and void and the candidates were forced to repeat.
Speaking at the forum to announce that the latest State Final results have improved, an emotional Minister Lawrence shared her conviction that the improved performance was due to a delayed process of intervention.
“It could have happened way before if I did not have the battle that I had to fight….”said Minister Lawrence, who pointed that it wasn’t her alone fighting with other officials, but she noted that the candidates themselves were faced with a battle of their own.
“They had people calling them dunce, failure; making a lot of derogatory remarks about them. I was on Facebook and I said ‘oh my God, how can we be so cruel to each other?’. But today as I stand here I want to give God the praise and the glory… first for the strength and helping me not to lean unto my own understanding…in everything I do I acknowledge him,” said Minister Lawrence in a sombre tone.
She noted that while the daunting performance of the previous exam was extensively reported in the media, what many people were not aware of was the fact that there were many gaps and challenges that the various schools were faced with over a number of years.
A number of changes, including self introspection, were required, Minister Lawrence noted, in order for the performances across schools to come to fruition.

A section of the trained nurses before learning of their outstanding performances.

But putting the necessary measures in place was not welcomed with open arms.
Minister Lawrence not only hinted to the fact that some nursing trainees had some less than appreciative things to say of her, but that some officials of the nursing schools did not always see eye to eye with her. She moreover made it clear yesterday that “once you are going to do something and, especially when you are in a management position, you don’t do it based on feelings.”
“I felt it for you too,” said Minister Lawrence to her audience yesterday of mainly [formerly trainee] nurses.
Despite her feelings, the Minister said, “That didn’t give me the authority to act on those feelings. What we wanted was to have critical evidence and data that would inform us, because what we had to correct wasn’t only for you, it is for the future of nursing in Guyana.”
For this reason, she said that it was required that an outsider analyse what was being done and what wasn’t being done. According to her, too, “the onus was however on the nursing fraternity to ensure that they correct this damage, and that there is not a stain on the nursing fraternity of Guyana…that concerned me a lot.”
But according to the Minister, she is especially grateful to God that she was yesterday in a position to “thank God and all of you for giving to Guyana and to the medical profession, an overall pass of 97 percent.”
Chief Nursing Officer, Ms. Tarmattie Barker, yesterday shared the examination trend over the years, some of which were less than remarkable. In order to address the dilemma in this regard, Ms Mandy LaFleur, shared the strategies that were developed to address the evident gaps in nursing.
LaFleur, a consultant who helped to revamp the nursing programme, revealed yesterday that the process was in fact a team effort that saw the needful measures being put in place that resulted in the improved performances.

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