Wrangle over nurses’ exams goes on

The nursing union has threatened to take the battle over the rewriting of nurses’ examinations “to the highest court” after recently losing in the Pretoria High Court.

The democratic nursing organisation of SA (Denosa) and SA Nursing Council have been involved in a tussle over the rewriting of the exams after four question papers for the bridging course were leaked, Rekord East reported.

On June 26, the Pretoria High Court ruled that the council had been correct in ordering new dates for the rewriting of the exam.

The council, a regulatory body for the nursing profession, cancelled the May exams after an investigation revealed four exam question papers for the bridging course had leaked.

But Denosa rejected the court ruling and vowed to take the matter to the “highest court in the land”.

Denosa general-secretary Oscar Phaka said his organisation was unhappy with the judgment: “We respect the court, and our lawyers are still studying the judgment. However, we are unhappy with it, and we will take it to the highest court in the land if we have to.”

He blamed the council for failure to prevent the leak, and alleged the papers written on 28 and 30 June had also leaked.

Sizo Mchunu, acting registrar at the council, welcomed the ruling: “We are in full support of the ruling that the dates of the examination must be rescheduled.”

The new dates for first and second year exams for the bridging course for general or psychiatric nurses were set as follows: July 19 for paper 1, and July 21 for paper 2.

“Moving the dates to July provides the students with more time to prepare for the examinations, which the council fully supports. It is in the interests of the public to ensure that the training institutions produce qualified nurses who passed the examinations on their own strength, and will therefore have the necessary knowledge to serve the public,” Mchunu said.

– Caxton News Service

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