Fraudulent registration: 500 Nigerian nurses risk sack in UK
No fewer than 500 Nigerian nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom (UK) could lose their jobs after warning that key exam results could be “fraudulent or incorrect.
The warning and consequent job threats followed an investigation conducted into a test centre in Nigeria.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said the registrations of those who passed exams at the centre could be ‘fraudulent or incorrect’.
As part of requirements to ensure that internationally educated professionals have the right knowledge and skills to provide high-quality care in the UK, they are expected to take a two-part test of competence before joining the NMC register.
The tests include a computer-based test (CBT) usually sat in Nigeria and a practical test (OSCE) in the UK.
The computer-based test covers such areas as numeracy, questions on drug dosage, as well as clinical questions, such as what health problems patients with diabetes are vulnerable to suffering from.
An organisation called Pearson VUE, which runs the CBT programme on the NMC’s behalf, was said to have recently alerted the regulator to ‘anomalous data’ at one of its third-party CBT test centres in Ibadan, Nigeria. Following the discovery, Pearson VUE immediately stopped testing at the centre.
No fewer than 512 people on the NMC register, constituting about 5 per cent of all on the register who qualified in Nigeria were said to have taken their CBT at the test centre.
Already, the NMC has started writing to them to set out what has happened and to tell them they are opening cases ‘to determine whether or not they gained fraudulent or incorrect entry to the register’.
Many of the people who have applied to join the register after passing their exam at the centre but are yet to be added to it were said to have had their applications paused while they are being invited to retake the test.
The NMC said: “Our paramount concern is to maintain the integrity of the register to protect the public.
“At the same time, it’s critical we approach any investigations about individuals objectively and transparently, avoiding any unfair discrimination.
“It’s also important to remember that we’ve not yet made any determinations about individuals.
“Pearson VUE has reviewed all data relating to the NMC’s CBT from every test site globally, and there is no evidence of similar activity at any other site.”
NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, Andrea Sutcliffe, was quoted as saying: “Data from one test site in Nigeria is unusual and concerning.
“We have regulatory processes which we will now follow, and if necessary, we can refuse registration or remove people from our register, to protect the public and people who use health and care services.
‘We know the public and people who use services may find this worrying.
‘This affects just over 500 out of the 771,445 professionals on our register.
‘They will all have passed the practical test in this country before they were accepted onto the register and to date no concerns have been referred to us about their fitness to practise.
“We should remember that thousands of nurses and midwives who were educated overseas have safely joined our register recently and continue to provide safe, effective and kind care across the UK.”
The NMC uses a Test of Competence (ToC) to assess the skills and knowledge of people applying to join our register from overseas.
A company called Pearson VUE runs the CBT. They have been the NMC’s test provider since 2014, when the test was introduced.
A total of 1,970 candidates took their CBT at this centre, of whom 512 are on the NMC register.
The NMC has since been working urgently with Pearson VUE to examine data and evidence about this. It is also scrutinising the full applications of those who have joined the register. Punch
