Nurses' union demands inquiry

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses yesterday demanded an inquiry into how just under half of the students in the nursing course failed their final exam.

The union said the situation was a bad reflection on the way the course was run and would further aggravate the prevailing shortage of nurses.

Following a four-year nursing course held by the Institute of Health Care, 53 of the 130 students failed their finals.

The union said it was unacceptable that just under half of the students failed at the last hurdle.

In properly run courses, students were assessed throughout the four years so that they were adequately prepared and only a few failed their finals, the union said. Clearly, however, the system being adopted by the institute was failing and many students were not being prepared to the required levels.

The union said it had long been urging the authorities to review the system.

This year, even more than in other years, the union said it and the Health Department had been hoping that the number of successful students would be high because of the pressing need for more nurses at Mater Dei Hospital and St Vincent de Paul Home.

It was estimated that 200 more nurses were required, which meant that even if all the student nurses had passed their exams, their number would still have been short of requirements. The fact that 53 had failed made a bad situation worse.

The union said it was calling on the ministries of education and health to authorise a joint committee to investigate the systems adopted by the Institute of Health Care.