NCSBN 2011 New Nurse Survey "Thank you" Letters

[listener]

After passing NCLEX, I received a NCSBN survey in the mail "on the practice of newly licensed RNs". It was long and tedious, and a lot of the questions seemed a little poorly or generically worded such that it was difficult to imagine what real use they could gain from the results, but I filled it out anyway and mailed it in. Now I've received a thank you letter in the mail, along with two form letters that are presumably for me to send to my state BON and to my employer (the NCSBN doesn't explain anything about them in the thank you). One starts "To Whom it May Concern: This is to certify that _________ participated..." etc. The other just changes "To Whom..." to "Dear _______ Board of Nursing...". They basically are testimonials to your participation in the survey.

So... well? Should I really fill in the blanks and mail one into the BON and give the other to my boss? She and I can have a laugh over it, but is this something that I ought to send to the BON? Can't hurt, I suppose. Can it help in any sense? It all seems a little silly.

What do you think?

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

After passing NCLEX, I received a NCSBN survey in the mail "on the practice of newly licensed RNs". It was long and tedious, and a lot of the questions seemed a little poorly or generically worded such that it was difficult to imagine what real use they could gain from the results, but I filled it out anyway and mailed it in. Now I've received a thank you letter in the mail, along with two form letters that are presumably for me to send to my state BON and to my employer (the NCSBN doesn't explain anything about them in the thank you). One starts "To Whom it May Concern: This is to certify that _________ participated..." etc. The other just changes "To Whom..." to "Dear _______ Board of Nursing...". They basically are testimonials to your participation in the survey.

So... well? Should I really fill in the blanks and mail one into the BON and give the other to my boss? She and I can have a laugh over it, but is this something that I ought to send to the BON? Can't hurt, I suppose. Can it help in any sense? It all seems a little silly.

What do you think?

Someone at the BON working on their PHd?????.... Seriously, I am sure it is a way of collecting data to improve the process, testing of the license process. What can it hurt???

[Penguin67]

Those surveys are done by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing in order to determine what entry level new graduate nurses are doing. That data is used, in part, to help decide upon appropriate level and content of questions for the NCLEX, which is revised every three years, partly in response to data generated by those surveys. I filled one out, not as a new grad, but as a practicing nurse, and was asked what the new grad would be doing in my area.

I think that your employer and state Board of Nursing might be interested in knowing that some of the survey data was generated from their institution or their state. I never knew of anyone who completed one of those surveys, but after I filled one out, I realized the importance of it. Take it seriously, as it helps your profession out more than you know.

[listener]

Yes, I'm sure they do have good motivations and probably are able to make use of some of the info. Still, there were a fair number of multiple choice questions that were so vague or simply not well-written, that I felt the answers they received could be meaningless or misleading. Whatever, I was happy to help. I was just wondering if anyone actually did anything with these testamonial letters. Thx!