Originally Posted by deeDawntee
Are nursing schools actually judged on how many students pass or don't pass the boards the first time and what their scores are? This whole scenario is becoming even more convoluted! So the board of nursing actually controls nursing schools as well? Yow!!
Who did you
think controls schools of nursing? Yes, they answer to the state BON (among other entitities). The state BONs exist to protect the public by regulating the practice of nursing within the state -- if a school of nursing is turning out significant numbers of graduates who can't pass the licensing exam the first time, that is considered evidence that the school is doing a poor job of educating potential nurses, and the school is placed on probation and monitored to see that it fixes whatever the problems are, and it can eventually be shut down if the situation isn't improved. (But it's purely on a pass/fail basis, not what individual scores people get). I know that doesn't appear to protect the public, since the licensing exam weeds those people out, but think of it as protecting the nursing students (who are members of the public, too!
) from poor-quality schools.
As for certification exams, they are not intended to
make you more knowledgeable in your specialty -- they are intended to verify ("certify") that you
are knowledgeable and experienced in your specialty. I took the generalist certification and advanced practice (after I got my MSN) certification exams in my specialty and, in both cases, there was stuff on the exam I
had never heard of before. But I passed in both cases so, hey, I'm not complaining! There does seem to be a certain degree of "Ooooh, look how much
I know!" in the test-writing process, though.
The NCLEX is another matter -- I cannot begin to shed any light on the thought process there ... I'm now officially an old fogey, from the days when the boards were only offered twice a year; you showed up on that date or you didn't, and it was two 8-hour days of testing. Now the exam seems more like playing the lottery than taking an exam to measure your knowlege and competence to enter practice. I'm not saying this to ruffle any individual's feathers here, but I am pretty offended (and I'm certainly not the only one!) by the idea that people are now getting licensed as RNs on the basis of having answered fewer questions total than my "generation" had to answer
in each specific specialty area of nursing.
I can guarantee you, though, that "empowering" nurses or boosting their sense of self-esteem is not considered a function of any of these exams, and why should it be? The point is to (attempt to, as much as possible,) objectively measure your knowledge and competence, and to weed out people who aren't up to snuff. I doubt v. much that
anyone, in
any profession, has ever come out of her/his licensure exam feeling pumped that s/he "aced" the exam -- you take it, you pass it, and you get on with your life ...
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