Nursing Board withholds exams

By Jeff Andrew Lule               

The Uganda Nurses and Midwives Examinations Board (UNMEB) has withheld results of 31 nursing students from Mulago School of Nursing who were found with incomplete clinical record books.

The students including; 22 females pursuing diplomas are part of the 291 nurses who sat for the 14th state final examinations conducted from November 5th to 9th, 2012.

Addressing journalists at their officers in Ntinda , the UNMED board chairman Prof. Wilton Sebastian Kezala said the board has resolved to send them back for clinical placements in hospitals and health centres following a thorough investigation into the matter.

The students are to spend another three months in hospitals to adequately acquire the necessary practical skills and complete their clinical books under strict supervision.

“The board accorded a fair hearing to the affected students, mentors and preceptors, school principal and academic tutor and discovered a weakness in the supervisory works. This was due to understaffing in hospitals and lack of inspection by clinical inspectors of nursing institution,” he said.

The board’s executive secretary, Helen Kataratambi Mukakarisa said assessment and supervision of student nurses during clinical placements remains complex because of understaffing in the hospitals which also affects the quality of services.

She said students need to be thoroughly trained and assessed by the nominated mentors (nurses) in various hospitals to make sure they get the right practical skills to offer quality health services after graduation.

She also noted that all diploma schools send their students to Mulago which makes it over crowded on top of being understaffed.

“The students are supposed to carryout practical work, day and night in shifts. But we have shortage of nurses in wards and because of this students find it hard to do their practical work which is the basic requirement,” Mkakarisa noted.

The legal advisor of the board, Harriet Tukamushaba revealed that two other nurses were sentenced to seven months imprisonment early this month over personation and forgery.

The two who were convicted by the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Busheyi include Seleusi Kambale a qualified nurse and Olive Biira Bisirikirwa a candidate of Ishaka School of Nursing.

Tukamushaba also a senior State Attorney at Ministry of Justice said Kambale was caught personating as Biira during examinations.
 
“Biira is also going to face the Nursing Council and she is likely to be deregistered and might never practice as a nurse. The council will decide her fate,” she noted.

Kezala warned that they will not accept such unwanted behaviour because it might end up clogging the health system that might affect the quality of nursing profession.