Are Students Protesting HESI??

TX_nurse_08 · Jun 15, 2008

Wow, I have not heard anything about that. I'm not quite sure what you mean about schools not telling students about the HESI exam though. Were they not told that it would be given or is there something else they are protesting here? I just graduated from a 2 year program and we took a HESI after each course, and one at the end of the program. At any rate, good luck to whoever is having problems with it. :-)

2btmanrn · Jun 16, 2008

I have been trying to find out more information about it. I guess the website was started by a nursing instructor whose program utilized the exam without early notification to her students.

Which is what happened to my classmates and I.

97% of my classmates completed the program but did not pass HESI and do not have their degrees.

This is so wrong. If they completed the program let NCLEX determine their competency not HESI. HESI only indicates probabilty of NCLEX.

tartay0211RN · Jun 16, 2008

I also graduated from a nursing program that did not inform us about the HESI requirement prior to admission. We were originally told in our first semester that in the second semester we would start taking HESI and that we were going to be the "test" class to see how it goes. Well the next semester came around and they chaged it so that the HESI tests would count as our final exam. In out last semester we were told we would take the cumulative exam to see how we did, and then they changed that on us and didnt let anyone graduate that had not passed it. I know this affected several people and to top it all off they gave us the HESI review class AFTER we had already take the test! I am told from students now that it is listed as a school requirement and they know going in so that seems a little more fair. My class was really bitter about it and it causes us alot of problems with the instructors as well as the added cost that we didnt know about going in. I think the test was a good helping tool for studying purposes and how to answer correctly but I dont think the content is what helped me pass the NCLEX. Let me know if you hear anything about the protest. :banghead:

futurecnm · Jun 16, 2008

Hello,everyone. I was told by a classmate that she head that there is a website that was started by a nursing instructor. I guess the website is looking for those nursing students who completed their nursing program and were never told from the beginning about the HESI exam.
Rumors has it that this website has these students setting up a protest date, time, and place.
I really would like for anyone to let me know if they know the website or where and when they will be rallying. I would like to join in the protest.
Its about time that schools stop abusing these students because of HESI. Its about helping the students. HESI is only a probability exam.
Please let me know if anyone finds anything

Would knowing about a HESI exam stop people from going into nursing school? I don't get it? Would it have changed anything? We took a HESI a couple times each year however, ours were not used towards our grades. But it was on our schedule. I do think it is kind of harsh to fail people due to this exam. However, it is a good indicator of NCLEX success and school's need to keep their NCLEX pass rates up. The HESI really wasn't that bad of a test, I didn't think.

2btmanrn · Jun 17, 2008

The Hesi wouldn't be so bad of a test if you had acquired a good program. Meaning good instructors, appropriate tools, and most of all notified of it in a timely manner. Our school failed in all aspects of all of the above. We were never familiarize with any sort of computer exams, nor were we ever told of any areas of weakness. I don't mind taking any exam, as long as I get heads up first. But I was definetly freaked out by being told less than two months before graduation and than telling me if I don't pass it I can sit for boards. Give me the opportunity to practice for goodness sakes. If my instructors didn't have much information about it, how may to? Now, 97% of my classmates can't sit for boards, no degrees, can't even get back into the program or any other program. FOUR years- gone.

Jolie, BSN · Jun 17, 2008

Would knowing about a HESI exam stop people from going into nursing school? I don't get it? Would it have changed anything? We took a HESI a couple times each year however, ours were not used towards our grades. But it was on our schedule. I do think it is kind of harsh to fail people due to this exam. However, it is a good indicator of NCLEX success and school's need to keep their NCLEX pass rates up. The HESI really wasn't that bad of a test, I didn't think.

A HESI requirement may impact a candidate's choice of nursing education programs. If you were deciding between 2 schools, one which would allow you to graduate and sit for NCLEX regardless of HESI scores, and one which would hold your degree and NCLEX eligibility hostage for lack of passing HESI on 2 or 3 tries, which would you choose?

While I disagree with the concept of "exit" exams, it is one thing when a school makes that policy known upfront. But we have seen numerous threads from students who were made aware of HESI requirements only after they completed a significant portion of their nursing education program. That is wrong. A college catalog constitutes a contract between a school and a student, and any unilateral change in that contract is unacceptable.

Let me turn your question about. Would you take a job where your employer could unilaterally change your salary mid-pay period without notice? Would you take lease that allowed the landlord to unilaterally raise the rent in the middle of the month? I didn't think so.

The developers of HESI have stated that many nursing education programs use the test for purposes other than those intended by the developers. If a candidate has passed both the theory and clinical portions of a nursing program, it is wrong to withhold his/her degree and NCLEX eligibility (livelihood) over a test administered solely to improve a school's NCLEX pass rate. If a school is having pass rate problems, it is their responsibility to ID and fix them without artificially holding back legitimate graduates. There is no state in the U.S. that requires a passing HESI score in order to sit for NCLEX. NCLEX is the recognized national standard for licensure, not HESI or any other exit exam

2btmanrn · Jun 17, 2008

THANK YOU JOLIE!!!!

Your writing is so eloquent. Thats EXACTLY IT!!!

Thank goodness!

futurecnm · Jun 17, 2008

A HESI requirement may impact a candidate's choice of nursing education programs. If you were deciding between 2 schools, one which would allow you to graduate and sit for NCLEX regardless of HESI scores, and one which would hold your degree and NCLEX eligibility hostage for lack of passing HESI on 2 or 3 tries, which would you choose?
While I disagree with the concept of "exit" exams, it is one thing when a school makes that policy known upfront. But we have seen numerous threads from students who were made aware of HESI requirements only after they completed a significant portion of their nursing education program. That is wrong. A college catalog constitutes a contract between a school and a student, and any unilateral change in that contract is unacceptable.
Let me turn your question about. Would you take a job where your employer could unilaterally change your salary mid-pay period without notice? Would you take lease that allowed the landlord to unilaterally raise the rent in the middle of the month? I didn't think so.
The developers of HESI have stated that many nursing education programs use the test for purposes other than those intended by the developers. If a candidate has passed both the theory and clinical portions of a nursing program, it is wrong to withhold his/her degree and NCLEX eligibility (livelihood) over a test administered solely to improve a school's NCLEX pass rate. If a school is having pass rate problems, it is their responsibility to ID and fix them without artificially holding back legitimate graduates. There is no state in the U.S. that requires a passing HESI score in order to sit for NCLEX. NCLEX is the recognized national standard for licensure, not HESI or any other exit exam

I do not agree with schools that do not allow people to pass due to HESI results (like someone else said, if you have a good program you should have no problem passing HESI). However, you are saying the school should disclose everything they are going to require to all students. so, they should tell you about all the clinical requirements, what will be on every test, what they are lecturing on, etc etc. I don't think that it is similar to an employer changing a salary. No one really knows exactly what to expect when entering nursing school. If someone would have told me I have to pass a HESI test to graduate I would have had no idea what it was and could have cared less at that time (as graduation seemed SO far off). It would have meant nothing to me. I'm not sure what schools are trying to get out of using the HESI as a graduation requiremenet and would be interested in hearing from any faculty to find out. It must benefit them somehow. It seems to me that it would hurt their reputation if they are not passing so many students and they tell incoming students to stay away. It goes against the usual desire to bring in as many students as possible. So, if I student does not pass in the permitted number of time to take HESI, do they just not graduate and that is it? they have no opportunity to get the degree? Take the semester over? What are the options? Just curious.

2btmanrn · Jun 17, 2008

Here is the option for us. If we don't pass Hesi by 90% or greater we do not sit for boards, we do not get our degree. We get nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Some nursing programs who use Hesi as an exit, use it to determine their students areas of weakness and create a plan for them such as taking the Kaplan review course or doing 12000 questions etc. But they don't penalize the students. They help their students succeed. Remember this HESI is a probability exam, its not the NCLEX.

But ours and most programs do nothing of the sort. My classmates are left with a college transcription with 100 or more accumulated college credit and no degree. They are unable to attend another nursing program anywhere else.

2btmanrn · Jun 17, 2008

Yea, my school post last week that they have 100% NCLEX pass rate. Why? Because one of my classmates, by the way she was the only one thus far who took the NCLEX exam, and passed. There are only three of us who passed HESI. Crazy, huh?

So if you are student looking from the outside, you would say "wow, 100% pass rate, how awesome is that?" Not knowing that 97% percent didn't pass the exit exam nor that 100% meant one person.

They trick the consumer and BON.

Again, if you don't know how do you know what to ask when looking for a program.

NeoNurseTX, RN · Jun 22, 2008

We weren't told either... we had to pass to take boards.. and they didn't tell us till our 2nd to last semester.