Nurses association faces lawsuit over 'atrocious' failure rate by francophones

A group promoting the rights of New Brunswick francophonessays it will file a lawsuit over the high rate of failurebyfrancophone nursing graduates who take the licensing exam.

The suit against the Nurses Association of New Brunswick is being launchedby the Socitdel'AcadieduNouveau-Brunswick, along with the student federation at the University ofMoncton.

The move comes after a scathing report Friday by the Commissioner of Official Languagesfor New Brunswick that slammed the licensing exam created in the U.S. that is used to evaluate most nurses in Canada.

"It's certainly not a decision that was taken lightly," AliChiasson, executive director of theSANB, said of the lawsuit.

• Watchdog says nursing exam puts francophone students at a disadvantage
• N.B. nurses have highest exam fail rate in Canada

"It was more about the fact that we have many graduates of a nursing program, that by forces other than their own, have been weeded out."

Since the NCLEX-RN licensing exam was introduced across most of Canada in 2015, the University of Moncton went from having high success rates to seeing more than half its nursing graduates failing the worst showing in the country.

"The success rate at the university is very strong, yet these same students who have successfully finished their studies seem to fall down at the last stage of their professional development," said Chiasson.

"The failure rate is atrocious."

Positions go unfilled

As a result, some nursing graduates turned to other professions in recent years, after unsuccessful attempts to pass the licensing exam.

"If you graduated in 2016, now we're in 2018,you're still waiting to be able to pass the exam and work in the profession," Chiasson said. "That's positions that aren't filled, and that's students that have to fall on other means to make a living."

Katherined'Entremont, the official languages commissioner, started the investigation after two nursing graduates complained.

She concluded francophones were at a clear disadvantage, in part because preparatory materials in French were lacking, but also because some questions weretranslated by people "who were not qualified translators."

Fears over decreased enrolment

GillesLanteigne, the president ofVitalitHealth Network, issued a news release Monday, urging change.

"We are currently facing enormous challenges in terms of the nursing workforce that require us to deploy extra efforts to address that reality," he said. "A reduced admission rate to the nursing profession as a result of a language issue clearly does not help our recruitment efforts."

Lanteignesaid graduates from the nursing program at the University ofMonctonhave long proved themselves inVitalit'shospitals and elsewhere in the country,

"Someone's language preference should never interfere with the nursing profession admission process," he said.

The language commissioner recommended an accredited translator prepare whatever licensing exam is used by theNurses Association of NewBrunswick, which is nursing's regulatory organization.

When reached by CBC News, the associationsaid it could not comment, since the report was with the group's lawyers and it was awaiting recommendations.

The association has until September to submit a report to the commissioner to outlinemeasures it hastaken to respect the law on official languages.