Mike Mwaniki
24 June 2008
Nairobi — The rising failure rate among trainee nurses has triggered alarm bells within their professional association. The National Nurses Association of Kenya, which expressed "grave" concern over their examination results, is now raising fears that the safety of patients may be in jeopardy.
According to the Nursing Council of Kenya, out of 1,973 diploma nurses who recently sat final examinations set by the council, 954 (48.4 per cent) failed the crucial test. This means the nurses from Kenya Medical Training College, faith-based and private colleges, will not be licensed by the council to practise nursing in Kenya or elsewhere, despite having already been awarded diplomas by their colleges. Those who failed will be forced to go back for further training before being allowed to resit the NCK examination.
The Nurses Act mandates the Nursing Council to prescribe the nurses' syllabus and issue licences after a thorough and quality training of professional nurses.
Professional
On Monday, the National Nurses Association of Kenya chairman Luke Simba said: "This issue is quite sensitive since it borders on the quality of professional nurses currently graduating from KMTC and other colleges."
He added: "The association fears that, if the trend continues unabated, then the safety of our patients and the general public may not be guaranteed, since the nurses' training is hospital-based." The association also took issue with the decision by KMTC to run parallel programmes without incorporating the Nursing Council schedule of exams. The umbrella nurses body has asked the Medical Services minister, Prof Anyang' Nyong'o and Director of Medical Services Francis Kimani to act fast to harmonise the operations of KMTCs with the NCK.
Trainers at KMTC's department responsible for turning out clinical officers, who form the backbone of the country's medical cadre, say they are so overloaded that the quality of future graduates from the institution may be compromised. They claim that in some areas, there is only one lecturer handling up to 210 trainees instead of the recommended 10.
A letter addressed to the college director and signed by 26 lecturers from 17 different campuses across the country warns: "If the current situation is not corrected urgently, the outcome from this department (Clinical Medicine) at the end of this academic year and subsequently will be disastrous."
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