Nursing Exam Failure Rates Spark Review

[toomuchbaloney]

Quote

NCLEX pass rates have dropped from about 73% for all candidates and 88% for first-time US educated candidates to 69% and 82% respectively in 2021, the last full year for which results are available, NCSBN spokesperson Dawn Kappel told Medscape.

Nursing Exam Failure Rates Spark Review of Test Results

The deep need for new nurses had people considering dropping the standard to allow licensing of more graduates. Fortunately, there is resistance to that idea. 

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

2 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Nursing Exam Failure Rates Spark Review of Test Results

The deep need for new nurses had people considering dropping the standard to allow licensing of more graduates. Fortunately, there is resistance to that idea. 

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a combination of virtual classes, simulated clinicals, and a lower max number of questions affecting those who are borderline.

[toomuchbaloney]

1 hour ago, Rose_Queen said:

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a combination of virtual classes, simulated clinicals, and a lower max number of questions affecting those who are borderline.

The article talks about remote learning and limited clinical experience secondary to the pandemic.  The pandemic did grow the number of science and vaccine skeptics who believe that research is all about fringe internet and YouTube opinions though.  Critical thinking and deductive reasoning are absent in too many discussions and opinions shared today. Maybe that affects the test takers as well. 

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

6 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

The article talks about remote learning and limited clinical experience secondary to the pandemic.  The pandemic did grow the number of science and vaccine skeptics who believe that research is all about fringe internet and YouTube opinions though.  Critical thinking and deductive reasoning are absent in too many discussions and opinions shared today. Maybe that affects the test takers as well. 

I thought Pearson was going to change the test, perhaps they made it harder. In my brief stint as a nursing instructor, I really resented having to "teach to pass NCLEX" instead of working on critical thinking. 

[PMHNPcandidate, BSN]

I did not realize that virtual class has such as big impact on passing rates...

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

On 12/31/2022 at 6:17 PM, nursej22 said:

I thought Pearson was going to change the test, perhaps they made it harder. In my brief stint as a nursing instructor, I really resented having to "teach to pass NCLEX" instead of working on critical thinking. 

Pearson is changing the test however the new version isn't live quite yet so the published pass rates are based on the current format.

I'm not surprised at all by a lower pass rate though. Virtual classes and reduced or in some cases no clinical experiences in the work setting can't be as effective as in person classes and clinicals. Especially the lack of the clinical component scares me for the new graduate nurses, they must be terrified and clueless when they start working.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

11 hours ago, PMHNPcandidate said:

I did not realize that virtual class has such as big impact on passing rates...

Yes, in person classes generally have more engaged students and teaching. An instructor can look at faces in the room and tell if the material is reaching as intended. Students in the classroom tend to have less distractions than thise attending via zoom or other

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

I think Florida's for profit schools contribute to the low pass rates.

[sleepwalker, MSN, NP]

Nurse Beth said:

I think Florida's for profit schools contribute to the low pass rates.

LOL...that would be interesting wouldn't it...treat Florida's results as an outlier and see if they are significantly skewing the data. Wonder how that would turn out....

[Rate your pain]

I think dumbing down the test is a really bad idea. Dumbing down tests results in ill prepared people serving in positions where they can cause tremendous harm. Plus, it’s the last barrier for people who cheated during nursing school from licensure (I am aware of several cheating students who failed NCLEX). 

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

Wow, I simply can't believe that they want to lower the standards for the NCLEX. I thought that they were already too low. When a person is going into a career that can impact the life or death of another person with a mistake, we need to have the highest standards possible, not lower them.

When I took the NCLEX way back when, it was a 2 day exam, and I mean a whole 2 days. The exam started at 8am, you stopped for lunch at noon, came back at 1, tested until 5pm, and got to come back the following day to repeat the process. Our passage rates were higher then they are today because I believe that we were educated much differently then. I also believe that with the advance of technology, students have come to rely more on the computers than on the material they need to know.

When I went back to school for my BSN, I thought that it was a breeze in comparison to when I went for my ADN when I did not have a computer. When I had to write papers, I didn't have databases with searches to pick out the exact material I needed, and barely had to read. In the pre-historic era, (as my daughter likes to call it), We had to use the Dewey Decimal System in the Library, and pray that they had the book I wanted, and I actually had to READ to gain the information that I needed for my work. 

So with the responsibility that Nurses carry, reducing the standards for the NCLEX would be a terrible idea, especially when we have already lowered the standards for so many other things in our profession. 

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

I think a big part of the problem is that you have a standardised exam being applied non standard education. Different nursing schools have different curriculm. 

In NZ we have a standardised curriculum and its the same regardless the nursing school a student attends. It's reflected in our pass rates (99-100% each year). A student gets one resit of the final exam and after that if they still want to be a nurse they have to go back to do more education. I find it horrifying that some you have nurses who get to sit the NCLEX 6 plus times