Tag Archives: midwives

Board Exams Aftermath

ambisyosa, career, medical, midwifery 2 Comments

I’m feeling ambigious towards the exams. I think that I have a 70-30 %chance of passing. But somehow, I feel that I wouldn’t feel so bad, or even feel surprised, if I don’t pass. I’m soo not into sour-graping. Most of the time if things go wrong, I blame myself (just ask my friends). But take a look at some of the questions given:

Sample Question:

Q. Determine the maternal mortality rate in the barangay. If 3 women dies of hemorrhage and 2 died of sepsis. If the total number of births is

A. 11.3

B. 12.5

C. 15.4

D. 10.2

So what’s the question? Where are the rest of the given figures?  And yes, the grammar really was that bad.

Another Sample Question:

Q. Which of the following during catheterization did you NOT considered?

A. bloddy

B. meatus

c. vaginal orifice.

d. clitoris

Okay, I understood the question this time, despite the atrocious grammar and spelling.  What kind of meatus (meaning any kind of opening) is this referring to? The vaginal meatus? The urinary meatus? But what the heck is a BLODDY?  The same question was given a few items later. It turned out that BLODDY means BLADDER.

Sample Question # 3

Q. A woman three days post-partum consults you due to her vaginal discharge.

a. Refer her to the physician.

b. ask her to go home.

c. take her to the hospital.

d. take vital signs

What kind of discharge? Was it foul-smelling? What color was it? How heavy was it? As most moms would know, discharge in the form of lochia is normal during the post partum period.  You can’t really determine your course of action if the situation is this vague.

I tried to ask the proctor about weird questions like these. Her only answer was “But they (PRC) didn’t send us any corrections. so i guess the test is fine. just analyze it.”

I don’t claim to be the best student-midwife but I am just sad that I have to dumb myself down just to understand the questions. It took some time to get used to the typos, but I’m ok with that. A couple of grammar slips is also fine with me. But I honestly couldn’t understand a full third of the questions because of these mistakes.

It makes me queasy to think that these questions were created by the Board of Midwifery. I am all for the upliftment of the profession. I think it is insulting to midwives’ intelligence that the body that creates the standards for them did not put much effort into the exams.

The government says that our medical professionals are world-class. How can we claim that if the Licensure Exams isn’t even in proper English? It would have been okay to take the exams in Filipino if questions in English are hard to formulate. I really wouldn’t mind.  

And to whom should I raise this concern to? Who will listen to a mere student-midwife like me?

They say that the results will be released this week. I don’t know if I feel excited.