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

Stephalump · May 25, 2012

My school is like this too. At least 95% of the class will pass, sometimes 100%. They have a somewhat high NCLEX pass rate in the 90s, but they are more concerned with helping their 64 RN students become knowledgeable.

See, to me that's a sign a school is doing something right. Our sister school has 3xs the seats we have, so the program is less competitive to get into, but they consistently lose 50% of their students by weeding them out. Their NCLEX pass rate is higher than ours, but I just don't agree with the method. The pace and material is as hard as it needs to be - I don't see the point in admitting people who probably won't pass to begin with, just so you can leave them behind.

It's not quite as big a deal to me in public colleges, but private technical schools seem to be major players in this. Charge students $60,000 (for an ADN!) with almost zero barrier to entry, then 60% don't graduate because they didn't pass the exit HESI.

It's taking advantage of desperate people who heard their commercials about the millions of jobs paying a million dollars a year waiting for them - and you don't even have to put in all the hard work and effort all those other fools who went to real schools did!!!

classicdame, MSN, EdD · May 25, 2012

I understand the process is frustrating. It is designed to create competent, professional nurses. Until another system emerges, the best advice is to do your best. Your REAL learning is when you begin working as a nurse. Jump thru the loops and do what it takes to achieve your goal.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 25, 2012

"i have never heard, and would like to see some "evidence based practice" studies on whether nclex gives the world better nurses than, say, a test similar to that i mentioned above."

you have gotten that citation; the study referred to gets updated every year. since it appears you are not really interested in reading it and are likely unwilling to go to the library and ask for it there as an alternative to your dial-up (weak excuse, btw-- is this the new dog-that-ate-my-homework?), let's try again.

in answer to the question on why do schools of nursing care about nclex and try to get students to the point where they can pass it, it's simple: that's where the licensure is. if they can't prepare a decent percentage of their students to pass the licensure examination to enter the profession, they aren't doing their jobs.

acknowledging that anecdote is not the singular of data, i offer the following tale.

i had a case once where a student alleged that she flunked out of her last semester because the exams were flawed and graded unfairly. she showed me a huge bundle of exam questions which she had answered wrong, according to her faculty, and she set about proving them wrong. she scoured the handouts and powerpoints they gave her; she pored over nursing texts and patient teaching materials. in so doing she found what she considered to be a number of questions that she had, in fact, answered correctly. she was trying to get the school to recognize these as correct so she would obtain a passing grade in the final.

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.

this is a process repeated all over academia about this time of year. "weeding out" has an unfair sound to it, as if it were somehow more reasonable to let people who have just skated by until the going got tough to go ahead and pass the last semester, even though they had reached their limits at the end of the last one. i don't believe that's true.

weeds are called weeds and removed from productive produce gardens for good reason. they can bloom and be beautiful elsewhere, but there's no way they'll make it into the menu as actual vegetables.

allnurses Guide · May 26, 2012

There has been a lot of talk recently about schools that exploit federal financial aid by accepting sub-par students and charging them high tuition before flunking them out. These are predatory programs that target students wanting to enter nursing with poor GPAs who are too excited to be accepted to research the quality of the program. The downside is we all absorb those failures in our interest rates for grad school and/or taxes.

Nursing is lucky we have the NCLEX because if we didn't they would graduate these people into practice!

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · May 26, 2012

It is not just pass rate. There is an algorithm that takes retention as well as pass rates. They cant flunk 75 % of the class to get a 100% NCLEX pass rate. In my school, it was the LPN-RN bridge where the numbers were low. The last class has just graduated. The "regular" ADN students had around 98% pass rate but it averaged to a 75% pass rate, which is too low. This year about half the LPN students passed the program. We will see how many pass boards.

I feel like we all struggled (well, almost all), but they did all they could to help us. We took diagnostic tests to see what our chances of passing were and we were pretty good. I feel good about my class's chances of passing.

ReinventingMyselfAgain, MSN, RN · May 26, 2012

It's not quite as big a deal to me in public colleges, but private technical schools seem to be major players in this. Charge students $60,000 (for an ADN!) with almost zero barrier to entry, then 60% don't graduate because they didn't pass the exit HESI.
It's taking advantage of desperate people who heard their commercials about the millions of jobs paying a million dollars a year waiting for them - and you don't even have to put in all the hard work and effort all those other fools who went to real schools did!!!

Praying on the desperate!! You're absolutely right!! These are people with no other options, who are naive enough to think that it's fast and easy. It breaks my heart!

ReinventingMyselfAgain, MSN, RN · May 26, 2012

It is not just pass rate. There is an algorithm that takes retention as well as pass rates. They cant flunk 75 % of the class to get a 100% NCLEX pass rate.

It's called retention and attrition. NLN accredited schools have to explain themselves. They have to then explain their admissions process (why did you admit these students, what is your criteria/benchmark for admission, and if your retention rate is so low, don't you think you need to 'up' your standards for admission? Also, what are you doing to remediate your failing students (services, such as tutoring).

I know this from recent experience. Schools who are legit do not get away with such things. Also, certain states prohibit exit exams from being the sole indicator of graduation. You cannot breeze through a program, and fail out b/c of the exit exam. If your school has this policy, then your high grades are bogus.

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · May 26, 2012

My school is trying to get NLN accredited. We did not have an exit exam, just a regular final for our last class. We certainly did not have high grades, but the NLN "Diagnostic Readiness Exam" showed that we were, indeed taught. Good critical thinkers b/c there was a lot of material that we did not cover and some people did NO NCLEX prep before taking that DRT and still were in the 80th percentile for passing. We got a good education, it was just tough. Passing was an 80% and it was a 6 point scale, so my 86.4% avg for one class was a "C". I passed the program, I feel well prepared, we had something ridiculous, like 600+ clinical hours. I already have a job so I feel blessed. I would do it again. I feel like I really earned it.

NightNurseRN13 · May 26, 2012

I completely disagree with how this was worded. Yes, nursing school is tough and it should be.. we are dealing with peoples lives. Our instructors WANT and NEED us to pass. The nursing shortage is only going to get worse in the future. But, your degree isn't going to just be handed to you, you have to work HARD for it!

morte, LPN, LVN · May 26, 2012

BINGO! and veterans need be very careful inre this same schools.

There has been a lot of talk recently about schools that exploit federal financial aid by accepting sub-par students and charging them high tuition before flunking them out. These are predatory programs that target students wanting to enter nursing with poor GPAs who are too excited to be accepted to research the quality of the program. The downside is we all absorb those failures in our interest rates for grad school and/or taxes.
Nursing is lucky we have the NCLEX because if we didn't they would graduate these people into practice!

allnurses Guide · May 26, 2012

I do believe most schools are aboveboard and that they strive to produce competent new grads who should be able to pass boards and begin work.

In these schools, one should expect it to be extremely challenging considering the huge responsibility and knowledge required to be safe.

It comes down to survival of the fittest. I have to wonder if the many complaints we hear about programs being "unfair" is not due to one's inability to accept that they are actually not one of the fittest.

That's an ego-blow, but the reality is that not everyone can make the cut.

No one wants to believe they are not "good enough" or "the best".

So the fittest survive and sit for the NCLEX... the final determinate in becoming a nurse.

It does not matter how ridiculously easy or stupid one thinks the NCLEX is, one has to earn the right to even sit for it.

If one gets "weeded out" before that point, then they did not earn it.

Period.

A student needs to realize that they are a very small fish in a big pond full of other incredibly intelligent people and the cut off has to happen somewhere.

Bottom line: if the cut happened with you, then there was a reason for it and it is up to you to figure it out and correct it.

I'm going to put my neck out and say I think much complaining is directly related to a bruised ego and an inability to face the fact that somewhere, emanating from within themselves, was the reason for the failure.

I am talking about schools that are on-the-level (though some students may label them otherwise due to... the bruised ego).

ReinventingMyselfAgain, MSN, RN · May 26, 2012

It comes down to survival of the fittest. I have to wonder if the many complaints we hear about programs being "unfair" is not due to one's inability to accept that they are actually not one of the fittest.
That's an ego-blow, but the reality is that not everyone can make the cut.
No one wants to believe they are not "good enough" or "the best".
So the fittest survive and sit for the NCLEX... the final determinate in becoming a nurse.
It does not matter how ridiculously easy or stupid one thinks the NCLEX is, one has to earn the right to even sit for it.
If one gets "weeded out" before that point, then they did not earn it.
Period.

Thank you Hygiene Queen. For as many times as this is reiterated here, people just don't want to hear it. Yes, it is a HUGE bruise to the ego. I always tell me students (to try to put it in perspective that this is like a reality show. Yes, you all came here to win, no one came here to lose. But one the differences is, there does not have to be only one winner. You can all be winners, but you have to work at it.

Acceptance into the program does not guarantee completion, or success. You would think this is common sense, but ut's not. This is my problem with admitting people who don't meet the criteria. Who had to repeat pre-requisites, who maybe failed a course in another program, etc. It gives students false hope.