REGULATORY BODY CHARACTERISTICS INFLUENCING PERFORMANCE IN THE NCK EXAMINATIONS

Quality education is crucial to the development of any profession. The need to produce nurses capable of functioning as safe practitioners in the health care is key. This has been necessitated by the increasing cost of health care. It therefore demands that nurses should possess recognized qualification before they can be registered and practice legally in any country. This study examined regulatory body characteristics that influence performance in the Nursing Council of Kenya examinations. The poor performance reported in the recent past years has warranted the need to conduct an investigation to unravel the possible factors with the regulatory body that could be associated with poor performance. The study may be used by NCK to address gaps identified in examination process to enhance validity in the NCK examinations. The study design was qualitative study. Data was collected retrospectively for a period of three years. Study site was the NCK and schools of nursing country wide. Study population comprised the heads of schools of nursing and the head of department concerned with examination at the NCK. Cluster and purposive sampling were done for key informants interviewed from nursing schools. Qualitative data was recorded and transcribed for content analysis. The study found the NCK examination to be susceptible toreduced validity resulting from format of examination, invigilation, marking and moderation procedures used and examination malpractices likely to occur. In conclusion the study reported reduced validity of the NCK examinations. The study recommended the NCK to consider revising format of examination in order to increase examination validity and to benchmark with other examinations such as N-CLEX and adopt other means of processing the examination.