A medical law expert has called for the thousands of qualified nurses who cheated in mid-year bridging exams to be struck off the roll.
“It would be tantamount to gross negligence to allow these nurses to practise,” said pharmacist, ethicist and medical law practitioner Shafrudeen Amod.
On May 10, staff nurses with a two-year qualification and employed at a clinic or hospital, wrote first- or second-year bridging course exams. Passing the exams qualifies them as better-trained “registered nurses” who earn more and have more responsibilities.
The High Court in Pretoria, which has invalidated the exams, heard that many nurses saw the question paper before they wrote the exam, and some had the answers memo, which they could have taken with them into the exams.
The implications are far-reaching.
Ethicist and qualified doctor Aimes Dhai, director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, said the suggestion in the court judgment that thousands of candidates che
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