Remediation ideas for poor HESI passing rates

The problem is, that we do the HESI tests all the way through, but the achievment of specific scores has not been a requirement to progress. It is the belief of some of our faculty that work directly with these students, that part of the problem is that the students do not consider HESI important. It was discussed that HESI should be part of the grade to make students value the importance of doing well on HESI. I am brand new, both to this college -and to academic teaching as well. I do not fully understand why, but the director is very leary about making specific HESI score achievements a requirement to progress/complete the program. I understand some of it. We are a small, private school (under a coglomerate)with no waiting list and actually recruiting students at this time. We are a costly program for students compared to other schools as well, and while the Nursing Program Director would like more stringent acceptance and progressing policies, I think the corportate administration pushes for much lower requirements. I did find out today that HESI is not just based on general ADN program objectives identified by the state board, but rather they make custom tests for individual colleges based off of the specific college's curriculum/syllabi. Given this information. I actually feel ok about making it part of the grade.

Yes, there is remediation available on the HESI Web site. Since I posted this question months ago, I have had HESI for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I dream HESI. While I may not agree with the concept of standardized tests not based off of my learning objectives (progressive HESI). I can honestly say that there can be no excuse for a student failing the Exit HESI if they remediated for every progressive HESI taken all the way through the program. While some nursing programs do not offer the progressive HESIs, mine requires them to progress. This has been a bone of contention for the students, but I honestly think they will be much better prepared to pass the Exit HESI and the NCLEX.

Now, whether or not I think the Exit HESI and the NCLEX are appropriate measures of entry level nursing competency is a whole other ball of wax.