| -Minister hints at possible involvement of Nursing Council personnelA number of individuals could be placed before the courts if an on-going police investigation finds them guilty of breaching the 2016 State Final Examination for Professional Nurses.Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton at yesterday’s press conference.But an internal preliminary investigation has already caused some officials to render the examination null and void, thus all candidates could see themselves having to re-sit a new examination.The examination,Wholesale Jerseys From China, which is set by the General Nursing Council of Guyana, was conducted on October 19 and 20, 2016. A total of 250 Professional Nurses participated in the examination which usually caters to nursing students from the Georgetown School of Nursing, the Charles Roza School of Nursing, the New Amsterdam School of Nursing and the privately-operated St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.However, the marking of the examination was stalled when it was discovered that there was a breach in the Clinical and Functional examination papers. It is not clear how the breach was uncovered, but Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, at a press conference yesterday hinted at the fact that students are more than likely not the only ones who will be found culpable.“While it is the student nurses who are involved, yet there are other personnel involved, and we should also direct our investigation in that direction. You can only buy if you are being sold, and this is something that is handled by the General Nursing Council. We were informed that the papers were sold, and if that is the case, then an offence has been committed that warranted an investigation by the police,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys,” Minister Norton shared.According to the Minister too, the National Health Policy Committee of the Ministry of Public Health met with the Chairman of the Nursing Council, the Director of the Division of Health Sciences Education and the Principal Tutor of the Georgetown Nursing School, to deliberate on the matter. But he disclosed yesterday, “We were unable to get pertinent answers to questions about this breach”.As such, he asserted that “we are of the view that no final decision can be made with respect to the re-writing of the examination until a proper investigation is completed.”While the Minister is hopeful that few persons are found culpable, he did reveal yesterday that it is his understanding that thousands of dollars might have been earned from the illegality.At yesterday’s press conference too, the Minister divulged that he has learnt from the nursing students’ fraternity that every year there has been a leak of examination papers. As such, the Minister disclosed that ensuring this situation is not repeated might require “stronger measures”. He did not elaborate. He, however, shared his optimism that those who are culpable on this occasion will be dealt with accordingly and those who legitimately pass the examination will be allowed to maintain their results.But if it is found that the vast majority of the students were exposed to the breach, the Minister disclosed that students will have to re-sit another examination.However he noted that “the question remains ‘who is going to re-set the examination…that same Council that might in some way be involved in the breach in the first instance or is it going to be independent?’”The Minister disclosed yesterday that since the breach was exposed, the Examination Committee of the General Nursing Council decided to render the State Final Examination null and void and indicated its plans to prepare and administer a new examination. The Committee has also shared its intent to notify the respective schools and students.According to Minister Norton, the respective Nursing School Principals were instructed by the Director of the Ministry’s Division of Health Sciences Education to meet with their students and provide some measure of psychosocial support in preparation for a possible repeat of the examination.But according to Minister Norton,Cheap Jerseys 2018, he has been made aware that the foregoing did not obtain the desired results.Calls for students to sit a new State Final Examination had recently caused students from the New Amsterdam School of Nursing to stage a public picketing exercise in retaliation. The sentiment of the New Amsterdam students is mirrored by students from the other schools as well, according to Minister Norton,NFL Jerseys China, who recently met with affected Georgetown students.Minister Norton has moreover appealed to the affected students to “instead of going out into the public with a placard,Cheap NFL Jerseys,” meet with him from tomorrow, since he is expected to be in a better position to tell them about the way forward.According to the Public Health Minister, he is anxious for the investigation to be completed so that the way can be paved for the addition of suitably qualified nurses in the public health system.“I can tell you we need them and we need them urgently too,Cheap Jerseys From China,” the Minister said. |
