Hello all! I am in a predicament and am not sure what to do. I graduated this month with my BSN. Now my college is forcing my class to take further NCLEX preparation and has told us they will not send my affidavit of graduation (AOG) to the BON until we do so and the earliest they will send it is in June. This new "requirement" was sprung on us right before graduation and not in the School handbook. In previous documents I have from the school, the college was supposed to send our AOG the next business day after graduating.
I passed the HESI exit exam as required... I really wanted to take the NCLEX at the end of this month and am furious that they would do this to their students. Their past published 5 years of NCLEX pass rates have been at or above the necessary 80%, so I'm unsure what the issue is.
Has anyone had a similar experience and if so what did you do? Does anyone have any recommendations?
Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
My simple advice is this: comply, meet their requirements to release your transcripts, then once those transcripts have actually been released (don't forget to order a copy for yourself), take the NCLEX, pass it, and then write a letter to your BON and perhaps to your State Department of Education or equivalent entity that oversees your school. In short, you'll need to actually be wronged to get "standing" as this is important later on.
^ This.^
OP, I feel for you. A LOT of the time in nursing EVERYBODY remediates because a few are doing something wrong/inadequate/need help.
Please consider that the staff of your fine institution are going to be your references for your first job, and rocking the boat - even though you're probably right - may not be what you need at this moment. It depends on how crowded a field you're entering.
You will likely pass with 75 questions, and in five years, I promise this won't matter.
I just graduated with my ADN but we had to go to two separate NCLEX reviews, it was mandatory to pass the last semester and we weren't informed on the second one until the end of the semester before.
We were LPN-RN students so must of us had full/part time jobs and each of these reviews required us to take a week off work.
I was irritated because I know my learning style, I graduated with a 3.9, so obviously I know what works for me and what doesn't. I find Kaplan useless and had to sit through 4 full days of that mumbo jumbo, then 4 full days with a local reviewer who was just awful. I even provided proof that I paid to go to a separate, highly regarded review and still had to go. But what choice did I have and it seems like your in the same predicament. Only one of the reviews was listed in our student handbook but they control if you can take NCLEX or not so I would just go.
My community college does not have a great passing rate right now, most of the schools in my state do not since the NCELX was changed a few years ago. The problem they aren't realizing is that it's not that we aren't going to enough reviews, its that they didn't change their program when the NCLEX changed so what we saw in class question wise was completely different from what is on NCLEX.
I would not pick this to be your battle, it will only further delay you getting to take NCLEX. Plus place extra stress on you when you need to be focusing on testing. Nursing schools know they have their students over a barrel, while it is unfair, I doubt you will get anywhere by resisting.
I would contact your Board of Nursing, this sounds very sketchy...
I would bet that there were a number of students who "met" the requirments for graduation, but by the skin of their teeth, and they fear a low pass rate on the NCLEX.
An 80% pass rate sucks, which is why they are doing this.
Which I would have no qualms about if they made it clear prior to people starting the program. At this point their crappy pass rate is their problem and this approach feels like an abuse of power to me.
Take the course, take your license and get an awesome job.
This is my experience and not legal advice (it was painful experience too):
Usually if you are within 1 year of being at an institution you can lodge a complaint with your State's governing board. You can complain to you Board of Nursing too but holding up of transcripts, proof of attendance and breaching agreements with students is not really their problem.
Make certain you have followed you CON complaint process to the letter. It will be online. If you do not do this I guarantee you will have zero recourse because somewhere there is a document that you signed saying you had to do that first.
Use professional and respectful language when writing your complaints and know what result you want. 1) money 2) apology 3) whatever....
I bet money your school had unsatisfactory NCLEX results and your BON spanked them recently.
Good luck and go rock nursing...YAY you graduated!!!
To be more clear -- said NCLEX preparation is not a course. We are being required to submit practice exams nearly every other day AND submit DAILY 75 question tests... must pass all tests and show proof of remediation. Then at the beginning of June take an exam to see where we are. The following week we must take yet another 4 day prep course (on top of the ones we have already done). After the 4 day course, we take the final test and (assuming we pass) then we get a recommendation on when to take the NCLEX.
Sigh.
I'm curious ... What type of school is this? A 4-year university BSN program? A 2-year Community College ADN program? A for-profit ADN program? A for-profit BSN program? etc.
I've seen such tactics used before ... but only by schools with pretty bad reputations.
We had a required 5 days of ATI "live review" including a comprehensive predictor exam. It was mandatory, but was held before graduation. This isn't unheard of at all, but should probably been addressed before.
Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
Good grief, this school sounds like it has spent more time and energy making sure y'all were studying for NCLEX instead of just making sure they prepared you well for it. Making you submit study plans for how you plant to study for NCLEX after graduation?? This was a requirement? This just seems so absurd to me. My school didn't focus on that at all. In fact they said not to over study. Not to delay doing the NCLEX. That stated they prepared us well. Told us not to study at all the day before we took the test. My classmates waited 3 weeks to do NCLEX. I drove 3.5 hrs to do min the Monday after graduation. Literally graduated on Wednesday and by Tuesday of the next week my active RN license was on the states website. My logic was I either knew it or I didn't so lets get it done.
If your school spent the time to make sure they prepared you well, they wouldn't have to spend all this time doing these absurd things to try and make sure you pass. What a nightmare to deal with right before boards. I am sorry you're going through all this.
I'm wondering if the lower pass rates affected or threatened reaccreditation or something and the school had to develop an action plan which included the rigmarole of teaching to the test instead of to practice.
I'm wondering if the lower pass rates affected or threatened reaccreditation or something and the school had to develop an action plan which included the rigmarole of teaching to the test instead of to practice.
I read the BON minutes of my State and see where schools are having to submit their plans of action for poor first time NCLEX pass rates. So it may be related to that and poorly communicated.
Depending upon which state you live in a college may change the requirements and most colleges have the following verbiage
complete their education with a minimum of disruption.â€...it is something akin to "other duties as assigned" if you will for all us nurses who know this all too well. I agree with what is posted here but again you would need to contact your state department of "College education" to find out if they can do this...by the time it is researched something tells me you will have taken the class. I would however send the college the bill for my class (again not sure how legal). I suspect colleges can do this if it is not a significant change the question is this a significant change or an enhancement for graduation?
What a nightmare to deal with right before boards. I am sorry you're going through all this.
ruby_jane, BSN, RN
3,142 Posts
^ This.^
OP, I feel for you. A LOT of the time in nursing EVERYBODY remediates because a few are doing something wrong/inadequate/need help.
Please consider that the staff of your fine institution are going to be your references for your first job, and rocking the boat - even though you're probably right - may not be what you need at this moment. It depends on how crowded a field you're entering.
You will likely pass with 75 questions, and in five years, I promise this won't matter.