Our Kenyan Nursing students have suffered for so long now, considering the challenges brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic.
Not being able to sit for their NCK exam in due time has rendered our nurses helpless and emotional distress as to the progress of their nursing career.
Delays in sitting for the NCK exam creates a huge backlog of nursing students who remain unqualified due to lack of NCK license and registration.
Access to job opportunities also becomes challenging in this era as employers are keen on full nursing practice qualification, as well as proof of safe practice in the hospital set up.
With that being said, it would be of best interest if NCK-CBT is introduced in Kenya, for our Kenyan Nursing Students.
The computer based test which can be booked and done at one's convenience will work at decongesting NCK exam test centres, also minimising the spread of Covid-19 in this situation. It will also easen the marking of the exam as it is all online based.

NCK CBT exams presents the candidates and other stakeholders with the following benefits

• Convenience in booking time and accessibility of test centres.Currently,students travels to reach to test centres but with this system one can test within their county and can easily reschedule.
• Minimize use of resources.Marking is computerised .This makes work easier 
• Instant results. Candidates get their results a few hours after the test .This enables them transition to the next stage immediately.Should one really wait for months to get results after studying for more than 3 years?Definitely No .The direction now is to allow candidates enter the job market immediately and not wait for months when their is a more convenient method of gauging them.
• Accuracy in marking. Marking is objective.A correct answer is correct and a wrong answer is wrong.Nothing to debate about.This gives an accurate rating of a candidate unlike the current system which is subjective.

NCK -CBT exams will not only create convenience but also be the safest method of conducting exams even in such pandemics considering that NCK paper based exams cannot be offered with the ongoing social distancing measures.Candidates can always book these exams at their convenient dates and not fixed dates on the calendar as with the current systems.

Licensing exams is meant to test the competence of a student who is transitioning to another level at which they can practice safely.And yes this method is proven to be the most effective method with many developed countries embracing it.

You see,with pandemics encroaching all parts of the world and our lovely country being among the most affected nations,we should be thinking of how we can let our young souls assist in the healthcare and enabling the high risks groups like expectant nurses ,those with terminal illnesses and the elderly to take a paid leave up until when the storm is over.This not only protect these nurses but also keep you and I strong and at low risks of trauma.

At this age and era we should allow candidates book the exams at their convenient dates and not on fixed calendar dates . We should also give them a chance to reschedule easily .Take an example of a candidate who fall ill 24 hours to the exam time.Should we let this candidate take the exam months later ? Of course No. We have under-utilised systems and it is time to make good use of this.Such candidates can easily reschedule the exam to one month later depending on their condition and this is only possible with the computer based exams.

It's time to embrace technology and broaden our thoughts to actualizing NCK-CBT in Kenya.

For this to be successful as KenyanNurse we are advising NCK to modify the following processes to facilitate administration of online examination.

1. Secure and approve secure online examination management system and conduct the entire Examination process
2. Let these ventor set up the Exam Centres at least in every County for easy accessibility by Nursing students
3. Have all the questions to be MCQs format, this will reduce the cost of marking since the system will auto generate the Scores
4. Programs that are undertaking 3 or 4 papers to be combined into one Paper consisting of 100 MCQs
5. Reduce the Cost Exam fee to Ksh. 4,000 since it will now be cheaper administering such kind of Exam

In the light of this as KenyanNurse we wish to raise an appeal to the Nursing of Kenya (NCK) leadership, it's board and the The Registrar Mrs Edna Talam to Administer online Exam -NCK CBT to the Nursing Students and Reduce the Fee to Ksh 4000

Sign this petition to support this initiative