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BSc Nursing candidates gripe about new test
KARACHI, April 23(Daily Times): Students gave mixed
opinions about the interviews that were conducted Saturday for the Bachelors of
Science in Nursing (BScN) programme at the JPMC College of Nursing. The
interviews were previously cancelled because there was doubt over the list of
candidates that passed the entry list.
"Most of the questions were asked
by doctors, while one or two were asked by nurses," claimed candidate Shabana
Nazir. "The doctors have a higher level of knowledge than nurses and they were
asking difficult questions outside the realm of nursing."
The interviews
had been cancelled earlier because the medical faculty wanted to screen the
people applying for the BScN courses themselves, she claimed. She added that the
allegations made by the medical faculty that the nursing faculty had allowed
cheating in the entry tests were baseless.
"An unofficial letter was sent
for the cancellation of the interviews so that the medical administration could
check the entry tests of the students themselves," she claimed.
"The
interviews were cancelled without any notice, which caused a lot of
inconvenience for many students because most of them had come from different
parts of the country."
The JPMC director sent a letter to the college of
nursing principal ordering the cancellation of the interviews, said student
Fazaluddin.
"It is possible that there was something wrong with the
faculty of nursing and that's why the medical administration decided to get
involved," said a student from Peshawar, Sher Bahadur. He added that canceling
the interview was the best decision and that the combined questioning did not
affect interview standards.
"The medical faculty shouldn't have been
involved in our interviews as there is a big difference between a medical degree
and a nursing degree," said Mumtaz Ali. He added that the assumption that
cheating had taken place during the entry tests was wrong.
"I did not
receive any letter for the cancellation of the interviews from the director
because I was not part of the interviewing faculty on Saturday," said JPMC
College of Nursing principal Mywish Khan.
Khan said that she didn't know
whether the medical faculty had asked difficult questions or not, and that she
would be able to say something about this on Monday, after she met the nursing
faculty that were involved in the interviews.
"This is the first time
external interviewers were brought in," said Khan. She added that usually the
director, deputy director, and three faculty members from nursing hold the
interviews.
"The three externals were from Liaquat University of Medical
Health and Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, Dow University of Health Sciences, and
Ziauddin University," said JMPC Director, Prof Rashid Jooma.
He said that
the new administration of JPMC had decided to have an audit of the entry tests
and during the audit it was felt that the merit list was not fair and there was
some manipulation by the staff or the candidates.
This college is
affiliated with LUMHS, and even they were brought in on the issue and concluded
that the merit list was not reliable, said Jooma.
"I don't know anything
about the externals' questioning, we left everything to LUMHS. It's possible
that the selection criteria was difficult because only 30 students were to be
chosen for the course," he added.
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