Hundreds of respiratory therapy students across the country won't be holding their breaths for the full refunds they were promised after a massive computer failure forced the cancellation of their licensing exam last month.

Yardstick Assessment Strategies administers the national exam for the Canadian Board for Respiratory Care.

Anyone who wants to be a licensed respiratory therapist (RT) needs to take the test to ensure they can evaluate and treat patients with cardiopulmonary issues in everyone from newborns to the elderly — mostly in hospital intensive care units, emergency departments and operating rooms. .

But on July 9, something went wrong with the half-day long online licensing examination.

"We started getting an error message saying our answers cannot be saved," said Lindsay McFarland, who has already put in three years of school and another year of practical training for her chosen career.

She and dozens of others taking the exam at Centennial College in Toronto were told the system was down.

"They made the decision to cancel the exam across the country. So all the students were sent home without completing this final exam," said McFarland.

Lindsay McFarland has committed three years of study and almost a year of practical training to her chosen profession as a Respiratory Therapist. A computer failure July 9th means she could not complete her final exam. (LinkedIn)

In total, 388 candidates paid the fee of $899 plus HST with nothing to show for it.

McFarland says most of the students she was with were upset about the cancellation, but were satisfied by Yardstick's offer of a full refund of the fee and an offer to reimburse reasonable out-of-pocket expenses, including travel, parking and meals.

'You know mistakes happen'

Yardstick offered two dates in this month for candidates to take the exam. As well, there is a regularly scheduled sitting in January.

"You know mistakes happen. We were still upset, but then we were at least happy this wouldn't have cost us any additional incurred expenses so we accepted that and moved along," said McFarland.

But this week, the company rescinded its offer of a full refund — instead Yardstick offered students $290 and said it would allow "a broader range of expenses to be claimed."

"I have to take additional time off and as casual employees don't get vacation, I'm out about a week of work," said McFarland, who works as a graduate respiratory therapist at St. Michael's Hospital.

But she says others whose licence will be delayed are in a worse situation.

"They can't get jobs because they are unable to work on their own."

Yardstick 'accepts full responsibility'

An email Yardstick sent to candidates says they will only be able to refund the company's portion of the examination fee.

It says that the company had hoped to offer a full refund, but that Yardstick had to remit portions of the fee collected to others.

Isabelle Gonthier, president of Yardstick, told the CBC that the company apologizes for any inconvenience.

"Our company accepts full responsibility for the failure. We are thoroughly investigating the root cause and will do everything we can to prevent anything similar from happening again,"

Isabelle Gonthier, president of Yardstick, told CBC Toronto the company apologizes for any inconvenience caused by computer failure, but says it can only refund the portion of the examination fee that it charges as its delivery cost to administer the test. (LinkedIn) The Canadian Board of Respiratory Care hired Yardstick to deliver the test.

Julie Brown, chair of the board, says they will work with the company on reasonable solutions.

"I understand that we will never be able to take back the stress from all of the candidates, but we are trying to make everything as workable as possible for those candidates going forward," she said, adding she knows students do fill-in work over the summer.

"July and August tend to be the time when they pick up the most shifts. A lot of them are booked solid," she said.

A lot of them have vacations booked. A lot of them have to travel to write this exam, find childcare. A lot of them have life events going on, and so we have to make this a feasible as possible," said Brown.

She said this is the fifth exam Yardstick has administered for the Canadian Board for Respiratory Care and the first time they've had an issue with the company.

McFarlane says the company should have checked with their suppliers before offering a full refund.

"It's disappointing that they went back on their word. We have student loans. This just adds to the stress."

With files from CBC New Brunswick