The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has called on the education authorities to appoint an inquiring board to look into why 53 of a total student population of 130 failed to pass their final examination for student nurses.

The union said it was unacceptable that just a few less than half the students failed to pass their final examination at the end of the four-year course and is concerned about the system being adopted by the Institute of Health Care.

The union said the IHC should ensure that students are fully prepared during the course and which, at the end, leads the students to pass the final examination. Moreover, it said, the students should be assessed throughout the course rather than have their performance assessed solely by means of the final examination.

This year, more than any other year, the MUMN was expecting more nurses to pass their examination because the number of nurses has to increase due to the demand at the new Mater Dei Hospital.

It said there are around 200 nurses less than there should be in the migration plan and even if all passed, the number of nurses would still have been less. Now, with 53 failures, the problem is even bigger, it said.

It therefore called on the education authorities to begin an inquiry to look into the number of failures.