NCLEX Before Graduation

[MedicalPartisan]

I came across a few similar threads, but most were dated with different situations than my own.

The summer term (May-July) will be my last term for classes. Then I have August, September, October, November, and the first part of December to simply work 12 precepting shifts. I will be able to complete those in one to two months, max, and will just be sitting around waiting for months to graduate. My question is, will I be able to test before then? Can you get an ATT before you graduate?

[Graduation2016]

By no means *

[scaredsilly, BSN, RN]

As other PPs state, you MUST complete your program, have your transcripts to prove you completed it and have your degree confirmed.

Is graduation at your school merely a ceremony? If they will confer your degree when you are done, you are golden. Otherwise you just have to wait until graduation. No degree= no nclex

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

By nor and am I thinking I can sit for NCLEX before graduating, my confusion is if I get to get ATT from the BON after completing my requisites which would be in December or if I need to wait until

June which is when the school has graduation ceremony for the whole school. See, pinning ceremony for me is being done with all your requisites, am I wrong thinking this?

Graduation ceremony is not the same as commencement date. The university I attended you could have a commencement date that conferred you successfully completed all courses required for graduation with a _____ major. You were done. You even received your official diploma within a few weeks. Commencement dates were December/January (depending on the year, some years the holidays were tight and snow days messed things up so commencement might be moved from December 21st to January 7 or so), May, or August. Graduation ceremonies were held in May. Those presented with honors graduated that May or the previous August or Dec/January.

If you were a nursing or other major such as accounting that required graduation from an accredited school program as a condition to sit for a certification or licensing exam, your commencement date was your graduation date. You did not need to wait for the graduation commencement ceremony. 1.5 semesters before anticipated commencement you submitted your request (application to be considered for commencement) to the registrars office (this way if you were missing a requirement or something was incorrectly applied, you still had a semester to fix the situation). You would also submit a request for your completed transcripts to be supplied to the licensing board. If you completed your coursework in August, that would be your commencement/graduation date. But you would not walk in the graduation ceremony until the following May. Not yet walking in the ceremony would not delay your final transcript verifying completion of your degree being released to the professional board (in your case the nursing board)

However if graduation/commencement is December 2015 and you complete your preceptorship/internship in October you will still have to wait for December for your grades & transcripts to be finalized, the awarding of your degree and THEN the school will forward your transcripts to the board of nursing. Not in October. Things do happen post preceptorship that prevent conferral of a degree and graduation.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I think keeping it very simple is best: once you have been granted a degree, and ONLY once you have been granted a degree, are you a graduate of any college program. Date of ceremony is irrelevant. Date of completion of requirements is irrelevant.

The only relevant fact is the date on which your college/university puts on paper as your date of graduation from your program of study, the date you were awarded your degree.

THAT is the information that needs to be sent directly from your school to your State BoN; the transcript with date the degree was conferred is what they want to see.

No one is ever issued an ATT prior to having officially completed a nursing program; for colleges and universities this would mean a date on which a degree was conferred.

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

Um, why aren't YOU looking for the answers on YOUR states BON website? You're getting good advice here, but shoot it down pretty quickly. Make it easy on yourself and see what your state requires...

Any sources to confirm that? I definitely plan on talking to the school when possible but it seems like this could vary from state to state as each have different requirements.