State of Florida's basic education programs

[londonflo]

Since being on AN I have become somewhat intrigued with the Florida basic education programs-- mostly LPN to RN. Developing short valid nursing programs for LPN to RN education is one of the most important goals facing nursing education today. Articulation between programs is vital. Unfortunately in my local area and home state there are few paths for the LPN to move into RN educational programs receiving credit for their prior learning. Sad. 

On AN I learned about 'for profit' Florida programs that are created just for the LPN to RN market. And that sounds like a great thing. These programs offer online theory content and condense required clinical experiences in short bursts, therefore allowing the LPN to come to Florida and complete their clinical education in a block format. (PS I have always taught with the curriculum design of "concurrent" clinical focus--what we study in class, we offer immediate clinical experiences in that population. ) The reality is that we hope students have clinical experiences in units that relate to the content sometime within the semester. We do NOT have direct application and haven't for years! Shorter hospital inpatient days are responsible for that and the limited number of student slots on a floor. Heck, many students do not have the same patient for 2 days!--ergo the rationale for the 12 hours clinical.

I do not know when the Florida for-profit programs took off. There certainly are a lot of them. FOR-PROFIT with POOR NCLEX SCORES..... 50% of Florida nursing program graduates score below the National standard. Florida does not sanction programs until their scores are more than 10% below passing score. 

So there are a lot of questionable programs operating in Florida currently. Some try to attract the LPN graduate who desires to progress in their nursing education with promises of online theory and a week or two of clinical. 

I have read that Florida's solution is to mandate ACEN accreditation (which means the NLN evaluators look at the statistics of graduates.) And with in 5 years of establishment of the program, ACEN approval must be achieved --- but at what cost of those who attended the program within the 5 years? and after...

There is a new school in Florida that features an LPN to RN track. Not unusual from what I have seen by looking at the Florida Board of Nursing site. Essential School of Nursing has graduated its first class of students. Here are the stats in the picture below. 20% of students passed NCLEX in the test year 2020.

Amazingly, I received an email message TODAY (question sent months ago) from Essential School of Nursing regarding their program. (Of course they said theyhave tried to get a hold of me --similar to the car warranty salespersons). I asked

 a question regarding the pass rate for 2020.

Quote

Hi X,

Can you tell me what the RN NCLEX pass rate is the Essential School of Nursing for the 2020 class? Approximately, what is the cost of tuition? Thank you in advance for your reply

The reply I received: 

Quote

passing rate is 75%, NCLEX fee is $800

There can be no MISTAKE on what year I was asking about. 2020 is the first and only year of their program.

What a horrible scam.

Please know that I respect many of the established, reputable nursing education programs in Florida and their graduates.

Why do these sub-par programs get approved and flourish?