School's hidden agenda, "NCLEX pass rate: Weed out students who will not pass"

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · May 28, 2012

i took the case on her side, and i looked at these papers very carefully, referring to her references and also to the explanatory materials the faculty had provided during her appeals period. i fully expected the faculty to be wrong, half-blind, or at least just obstinate in their defense of the indefensible. imagine my surprise when halfway through the pile i realized that i had not yet found one question in which the student was, in fact, correct and performing at the level of an almost-new-graduate nurse. imagine my chagrin when i got through the whole pile (and consulted with an education researcher on the meaning of some of the statistics given by the faculty.. they were scrupulously correct) and realized the only question she was entitled to had already been thrown out as a bad question.

the difference often was that while the student had often made choices that were factually correct, they were not the best answer for the question actually being asked, a question which sought the higher level of understanding of an rn. the fact is that she never would have passed the nclex...and that was, alas, a good thing, because she did not have the decision-making or assessment skills to be an rn. nclex would have weeded her out.

the school's process was correct, and they were correct in denying her a degree, regardless of how it would make their nclex pass-rate stats come out. those are after-the-fact validation, feedback; flunking her was not prophylactic cover-your-butt on their part.

very interesting story. i'm just curious about how the conversation went when you told her you could find no evidence that the process was unfair and that she really didn't have what it takes to pass nclex.

newnurse201222 · May 29, 2012

The 2011 validity assessment: https://www.ncsbn.org/12_RN_Practice_Analysis_Vol53.pdf

I am not saying I like the NCLEX, quite the opposite. Just saying it measures competency and doesn't necessarily correlate with breadth of knowledge, practical aptitude, academic merit, etc.

I read the summary of the article you quoted earler. It looks like the tome is a study of whether what's asked on the NCLEX correlates with nursing reality. Fair enough, and thanks for the info, but I think that's a bit different than what I was asking. Where'd you get this, and do you have any ideas on how an unannointed one could find evidence that the NCLEX tests what its supposed to test?

And if NCLEX doesn't test breadth of knowledge, practical aptitude, or academic merit, it wouldn't seem that there is much measureable substance to the minimal competency the exam supposedly measures. Presumably there's a list of minimmally competent behaviors somewhere, and the test could be evaluated against that, maybe. Seems to me like that list - the list of minimally competent behaviors - should be alot more readily available than it is.

allnurses Guide · May 30, 2012

I read the summary of the article you quoted earler. It looks like the tome is a study of whether what's asked on the NCLEX correlates with nursing reality. Fair enough, and thanks for the info, but I think that's a bit different than what I was asking. Where'd you get this, and do you have any ideas on how an unannointed one could find evidence that the NCLEX tests what its supposed to test?
And if NCLEX doesn't test breadth of knowledge, practical aptitude, or academic merit, it wouldn't seem that there is much measureable substance to the minimal competency the exam supposedly measures. Presumably there's a list of minimmally competent behaviors somewhere, and the test could be evaluated against that, maybe. Seems to me like that list - the list of minimally competent behaviors - should be alot more readily available than it is.

The study simply evaluates the NCLEX validity (does it measure what is says it measures - competency in practice) in my reading of it anyway. The study, as well as past years, is available from the NCSBN.

https://www.ncsbn.org/2010_NCLEX_RN_Detailed_Test_Plan_Candidate.pdf

See page 9-10. These are the "core" testing areas.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 30, 2012

"very interesting story. i'm just curious about how the conversation went when you told her you could find no evidence that the process was unfair and that she really didn't have what it takes to pass nclex."

i wrote a very detailed report. i didn't tell her i didn't think she could pass nclex but i did tell the lawyer. well, let's just say my invoice hasn't been paid yet. :madface: