Student Not Eligible for NCLEX

[Nurse Beth]

Dear Nurse Beth,

My daughter graduated with a BSN. Transcript shows degree awarded. However, she didn’t make the school's required minimum on the HESI. Now the school has decided to administer ANOTHER test in a month, which will interfere with her job offer. At what point does something give and the school no longer hold the control to hold not releasing graduates to sit for the NCLEX?

---

Dear Daughter Held Back,

Most nursing schools require their students to pass the HESI exam prior to graduation. The HESI exam is a valid predictor of the student's ability to successfully pass the NCLEX.

The HESI exam consists of 150 questions and is designed to test critical thinking and application.

Nursing schools have the right to hold students to conditions of successful completion of the nursing program. Students who do not successfully meet requirements of completion are not eligible for the NCLEX.

The best thing for your daughter to do is prepare to successfully pass the test.

A BSN has no value to employers without an RN behind it.

Her job offer is certainly contingent on her passing the NCLEX, and the first step towards passing the NCLEX is passing the required exit exam. At some hospitals, the applicant's exit exam scores are looked at along with their GPA when hiring.

In other words, although you could choose to fight and appeal the school's decision, your energy is better spent on encouraging and helping your daughter pass. There are a lot of helpful study aids out there.

Best wishes,

Nurse Beth

Author, "Your Last Nursing Class: How to Land Your First Nursing Job"...and your next!

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

On 6/12/2019 at 10:45 AM, Fastpitcher said:

It wasn’t even mentioned until the last year of the school had begun.

She knew for a year that passing the HESI was crucial to being able to take NCLEX. There is nothing to appeal. She needs to deal with the consequences and advise her future employer of the set-back.

Schools are judged by the BON for their NCLEX pass rates. It is not in the school's best interest to allow graduates who did not pass their Exit exam take NCLEX.

[BSN_TN, BSN]

Was it in the curriculum for the last semester? It’s usually part of that and is explained at the beginning of the last semester. I know when I graduated with my associates, if a student failed to pass the HESI 2xs then their paperwork would not be sent into the state and they would have to come in and take a mandatory review course.The paperwork that is filled out for the state during the last semester, is what matters not the degree or the transcript. A person can hold a degree in nursing but at the same time If the school doesn’t send the paperwork in because they did not satisfy requirements ,it will mean nothing. Just like if someone went through nursing school and graduated top of their class if they didn’t meet state requirements say they lied about a crime etc they couldn’t take the NCLEX.

[napswithcats, ADN, CNA, RN]

My school was doing very poorly on their NCLEX exam pass rates and they randomly introduced HESI’s at the end of each nursing course with a minimum passing score of 850 then increased it to 900 and my my did it help! Sure, many more students got held back and weren’t able to graduate on time or graduate at all but the NCLEX pass rates went from 56% to 92%. You should be able to pass the HESI and comply with all requirements because people’s lives are going to be on the line. I would want the nurse taking care of me to at least meet their school’s minimum requirements, pass all necessary exams and NOT fail the NCLEX their first time which she’s in danger of if couldn’t even pass the HESI. The better prepared you are as a new grad, the better and that is exactly what these exit exams are for. She’s honestly lucky she has yet another chance.

[caliotter3]

37 minutes ago, napswithcats said:

My school was doing very poorly on their NCLEX exam pass rates and they randomly introduced HESI’s at the end of each nursing course with a minimum passing score of 850 then increased it to 900 and my my did it help! Sure, many more students got held back and weren’t able to graduate on time or graduate at all but the NCLEX pass rates went from 56% to 92%. You should be able to pass the HESI and comply with all requirements because people’s lives are going to be on the line. I would want the nurse taking care of me to at least meet their school’s minimum requirements, pass all necessary exams and NOT fail the NCLEX their first time which she’s in danger of if couldn’t even pass the HESI. The better prepared you are as a new grad, the better and that is exactly what these exit exams are for. She’s honestly lucky she has yet another chance.

People not taking the NCLEX seriously at my school caused an entire category of student to no longer benefit from taking the NCLEX early. The NLN exams that everyone failed obviously were not taken seriously either. Don't take things seriously and the people with the power will make certain you take note sooner or later. I don't recall ever being told that NCLEX pass rates reflected on the school until we got told about the policy change. Too many students had been taking the early NCLEX as a "practice" test instead of taking it for employment purposes. So those who needed that advantage got punished along with the 'don't cares'.

[twinsmom788]

On 6/13/2019 at 3:07 PM, adventure_rn said:

When you refer to this test next month, would she be retaking the HESI, or is this an exam in lieu of the HESI? If her goal is to speed up the process of sitting for the NCLEX so that she doens't miss out on her current job opportunity, perhaps she could sign up to take the HESI earlier (i.e. in the next couple of weeks) in order to get out of the exam in a month. If she can demonstrate a passing score, may they'd release her graduation info so she can sit for the NCLEX. She'd probably have to pay out of pocket, but it could speed up the process.

All of this info is based a wing and a prayer. The BON in her state is the one that holds most of the cards. In my experience , there is nothing that can speed the BON up, unfortunately.

Good idea, in theory.

[napswithcats, ADN, CNA, RN]

43 minutes ago, caliotter3 said:

People not taking the NCLEX seriously at my school caused an entire category of student to no longer benefit from taking the NCLEX early. The NLN exams that everyone failed obviously were not taken seriously either. Don't take things seriously and the people with the power will make certain you take note sooner or later. I don't recall ever being told that NCLEX pass rates reflected on the school until we got told about the policy change. Too many students had been taking the early NCLEX as a "practice" test instead of taking it for employment purposes. So those who needed that advantage got punished along with the 'don't cares'.

Yes!! My school was actually in danger of loosing accreditation because of NCLEX scores. What is mortifying is that these exit exams and the NCLEX test safety and the only basics of nursing! It’s scary that students are given the opportunity to fail them multiple times. I’ve known people that have taken the NCLEX 6 times. I wouldn’t want to put my loved ones life in the hands of someone who failed the most basic exam on safety multiple times.

[twinsmom788]

On 6/13/2019 at 4:01 AM, Fastpitcher said:

Keep in mind as stated in my original post, she has already graduated.Already received her degree. Already picked up her transcript showing completion. I’m sure it will all work out.

There are many professions and trades that cannot be practiced without a license from the state. Nursing is one of them. Trying to fight the school and the state will serve no purpose.

There is no workaround.

[Workitinurfava, BSN, RN]

On 6/13/2019 at 5:01 AM, Fastpitcher said:

Keep in mind as stated in my original post, she has already graduated.Already received her degree. Already picked up her transcript showing completion. I’m sure it will all work out.

Weird...she should be able to test if she passed the programs classes. Schools want to say they have a 99 percent pass rate for nclex so of course she must pass hesi messy to test for the nclex. If the school prepared her properly, plus she put in the work, which is seems she did if she passed her classes, she should pass the nclex. My school had a 99 percent pass rate and it didn't require us to get a certain hesi score to be able to take the nclex. There was really no way you could pass the courses and not pass the nclex, unless you tried to fail. Only a few would not pass or would retry and pass the second time. I passed on my first attempt.

[twinsmom788]

On 6/12/2019 at 8:04 AM, caliotter3 said:

In my day and age my BSN program said nothing about a HESI, a HEMI, or any other kind of exit exam. We were required to take NLN exams but were not penalized for our scores. I’ll tell you one thing though. We certainly heard plenty from instructors when the entire class ‘failed’ these exams. Most people failed miserably. I can not empathize with the mother though. It was no secret to her daughter that passing the exam was her key to the NCLEX that was made abundantly clear to her at the start of nursing school. Time for her to study.

We must be of the same day and age! Those NLNs were awful and very predictable in my case. I miserably failed the pediatrics portion and when I took my Boards, pediatrics was my lowest scoring section. That was back in the Stone Age when we took the Boards in July and didn't find out until September that we passed.

And believe it or not, I worked very successfully for 10 years in a pediatric hospital!

[caliotter3]

Failing the NLN exam opened my eyes completely to the fact that my program was really very poor in quality. I had suspected it all along, but there was little doubt by that time. All they cared about was APA formatted papers and the middle-aged soccer moms who sat in the front row and valiantly sucked up.

[twinsmom788]

1 minute ago, caliotter3 said:

Failing the NLN exam opened my eyes completely to the fact that my program was really very poor in quality. I had suspected it all along, but there was little doubt by that time. All they cared about was APA formatted papers and the middle-aged soccer moms who sat in the front row and valiantly sucked up.

Oh dear, the vision of the soccer moms! My program was rated #2 in the country at the time by the NLN. What a coincidence. LOL

[caliotter3]

They had just started transitioning to the computer test at the end of my program, so I came along just a smidgeon behind you, maybe by a semester.