Licensure exams failure sending nurses into depression

Hundreds of trained community Nurses at Oda Community Nursing Training school are reportedly going through some hard emotions over a mass licensure examination flunk.

For a Nurse Assistant, Nurses and Midwives to qualify to work in Ghana, he/she must write and pass the licensing examination conducted by the Council at the end of his Course before the person becomes illegible to practice in the Country.

The Licensing Examination for the various Programes are held in February /March ,June/July, August and November/December every year.

Candidates who pass all components of the Examination are issued Professional Identification Number (PIN) or Auxiliary Identification Number (AIN) depending on the professional course pursued.

However, for the past 2 years, the Oda Community Health Nursing School has been recording high rate of failure among their students. In 2017 ,only 50% of the Students passed the Nursing and Midwifery Council licensing Examination while in 2018, the number of students who passed dropped to 48%. Many of the students have consistently failed varied papers after Re-siting for three times.

A Student who completed in 2017 but yet to pass the Licensing examination after attempting three times told Starr News, she attempted suicide but by the intervention of her parents who rushed her to the hospital.

According to her, she is depressed and feels hopeless having done her best in anticipation to pass the paper in her various attempts but to no avail.

"I feel depressed. I have sat home since 2017 having failed the general paper three times I will write for the forth time in July . We don’t know what is happening. I even attempted committing suicide."

She however said she has registered to resit the examination for the fourth time in the June/July examination period.

For other students going through similar situation, the mass failure is nationwide hence believe it is a frustrating mechanism by government and NMC to cut down the size of unemployed nurses since government is struggling to employ them.