The UK Nursing Council said there are suspicions that the registration of the affected nurses could be fraudulent and incorrect.
No fewer than 512 Nigerians who passed their Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Computer-Based Test (CBT) at a centre in Ibadan, Oyo State, will have their registrations in the United Kingdom subject to probe in the coming days.
This was disclosed by the NMC in a statement posted on its website on Friday, May 5, 2023.
The NMC said it was writing to the affected nurses and midwives to explain what happened and to also inform them that it was opening cases to determine whether or not they gained entry on the council’s register through fraudulent or other unlawful means.
Pulse reports that the NMC usually deploys the test of competence, which comes in two main parts, as a way to assess the skills and knowledge of applicants who signify interest to join its register from overseas.
The test has a multiple-choice computer-based component which applicants write from their home country and a practical component known as the OSCE, which people take in the UK.
A company, Pearson VUE, has been conducting the CBT component on behalf of the NMC since the test was introduced in 2014 and it’s further split into two parts: Part A covers numeracy, and Part B covers clinical questions for nursing or midwifery.
But, Pearson VUE called the attention of the regulator to “anomalous data” at one of its third-party CBT centres in Ibadan, Nigeria.
This is according to NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, Andrea Sutcliffe, who said “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 said a total of 1,970 candidates took their CBT at the flagged centre, of whom 512 made it to the council’s register.
The 512 figure represents about 5% of the total number of nurses and midwives on the roaster and the NMC has said no fitness to practise concern had been raised about anyone in this cluster.
It said, “But clearly, if someone has gained entry to the register incorrectly or fraudulently, then the NMC will need to take action.
“The NMC is approaching investigations about individuals objectively and transparently, avoiding any unfair discrimination. It has not yet made any determinations about individuals. Unless the NMC decides there is sufficient evidence to seek an interim suspension order, individuals will be able to continue to work.”
According to the Texas Board of Nursing, all the suspects were caught in a grand fraudulent diploma/transcript scheme as revealed by ongoing investigations.
