Quebec nursing students cry foul after more than half fail licensing exam – CBC

Many students left angry, mystified with 54.6% failure rate, as province deals with nurse shortage

Nov 13, 2022

Thérèse Rizk was considered a top nursing student at her school in Montreal and she was looking forward to getting to work in the provincial health-care system, which is in dire need of staff.

All she had to do was pass her licensing exam, which she wrote at the end of September.

With 13 years of experience as a licensed midwife and three more as a school nurse back in Lebanon, Rizk had every reason to be confident.

“I have very high [grades] …I worked hard,” she said.

So imagine her surprise — and crushing disappointment — when she failed. And Rizk wasn’t alone.

According to Quebec’s professional order of nurses (known by its French acronym, the OIIQ), 54.6 per cent of students failed the licensing exam written at the end of September. For those who took the test for the first time, the failure rate was 48.6 per cent — the highest rate recorded in four years.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-nursing-students-fail-exam-1.6650309