University changing cirriculum mid year HELP!!

mitchsmom · Nov 30, 2005

oops... I'm trying to edit & make my thoughts more clear and it's reposting!

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Dec 1, 2005

now they are trying to hurt the good students because some of my class can't pass boards.

"because some of my class can't pass boards" this is the real issue and concern here.

state boards of nursing require nursing schools to have a minimum pass rate on first attempt. those schools who students fall below this pass rate (usually after 2 years) must come up with a remedial plan to improve passing state boards so the sbon doesn't close the school due to not meeting standards.

schools can change testing requirements after notifying the students. they are not changing courses offered. part of the report to sbon is review of course content, teaching strategies so changing to a different test to help identify students with low possibility of passing boards is imperative.

since these tests/exams have proven correlation with passing boards, most sbon allow exactly what your nursing program is doing. those that don't pass the test, have areas of weakness identified. school should be offering remediation then taking test again. if student does not pass, then they need to repeat course entirely.

this is no different than what is done in medical school with needing to pass mcat testing. one can graduate with a 4.0 gpa but until you pass the licensing exam, one is not a nurse/physician. the moderating team has become increasing alarmed by the number of bb members who have posted unable to pass nclex on 3, 5 even 7 tries. healthcare professionals are held to the highest standards because what we do affects peoples lives.

offering to help identify areas of weakness, go over difficult material with this student, offer your experiences with hesi to lessen test anxiety would be a great way to help them succeed.

pa nurse practice act

21.26. failing rate of a school in examination.

if 40% or more of the first-time examinees of a school of nursing writing the examination in this commonwealth fail the examination, the school will be placed on provisional approval status. the board may consider additional documented statistics concerning the examination scores received in other states by commonwealth graduates in determining the status of the school.

21.33. types of approval

provisional. the board may place on provisional approval a school not meeting the acceptable standards. a period of 2 years will be the maximum time allowed for the correction of deficiencies resulting in provisional approval. if the standards are not met within this designated time, the school will be removed from the approved list.

http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/049/chapter21/chap21toc.html#21.26.

nj practice act:

13:37-1.17 conditional accreditation

(a) the board shall place an accredited program on conditional accreditation if:

1. the program fails to meet or maintain the standards and requirements for accreditation contained

in this subchapter; or

2. less than 80 percent of its graduates achieve passing grades in the licensing examination.

(b) the board may limit the number of students enrolled in a program placed on conditional accreditation.

the institution shall be given the opportunity for a hearing to appeal this decision.

(d) the board may, upon request, remove a program from conditional accreditation if it can be demonstrated that the standards and requirements contained in this subchapter have been met.

13:37-1.18 probation

a program may be placed on probation when its graduates fail to achieve 80 percent passing on the licensing examinations for two consecutive years. a program placed on probation shall not admit new or transfer students into the program. the institution shall be given the opportunity for a hearing to

appeal this decision.

glad to see these sbon regulations help to maintain quality education and qualified pratitioners

fergus51 · Dec 1, 2005

I'm sure everyone has a point at which change would be unacceptable.

Sure and as a nurse, I can always change jobs. As a nursing student, you don't have as many options unfortunately. I completely understand being angry and frustrated if courses were changed or locations for classes and clinicals or the costs were changed, etc. But changing a test, I think is pretty reasonable. If they are having problems with students failing the NCLEX and they think this will help them identify those students who MAY fail earlier and help them out, then I think it would be irresponsible to wait to implement that for the next class. In the end, they want their students to do well. I know as a student it may not feel that ways sometimes:) I had a lot of righteous anger in nursing school too:chuckle Fortunately you get through it and looking back it doesn't seem as bad.

LeesieBug · Dec 2, 2005

I agree that this is not a change in the curriculum. Our school has added various tests and assessment tools throughout the years. That is not the same as changing curriculum. I have had all kinds of new crap thrown at me...I figure if I can't pass the stuff they give me, maybe I DO need further education. I am GLAD they are doing their best to make me a a good nurse and increase my odds of passing NCLEX (I prefer to look at it that way rather than feeling that the school is only out for their own interests regarding pass rates :) ).

As far as curriculum, ie required courses and sequence, we signed a graduation contract during our sophomore year (first year in nursing) that says they CAN NOT change our required courses.

I'm sorry if this is stressing out your friend. I understand the aggravation, but its just the nature of the beast, unfortunately.

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Dec 3, 2005

We have just had a similar situation. Throughout my NS career, I've seen different assessment tools come and go with new ones replacing them. This semester the HESI was added with the requirement of passing before graduation. Well, only 10 to 15% of the class actually passed. Are they only going to graduate 7 to 10 students out of 75??? Since the objective is to shore up the NCLEX pass rates, the faculty decided to give two additional chances to take the test. It will create incentive for the students to study and hopefully retain knowledge for the NCLEX. If on the second try, they do not pass, they will not graduate in December, and receive an "I" for their final grade. They cannot walk with the graduating class but they can get pinned. The third attempt comes in January, into the next semester. If they still don't pass, they will graduate anyway with the "I" being converted into a letter grade.

As you can imagine, there was a lot of lively discussion concerning this issue the day following the test. It is common for passing exit testing as a requirement for graduation. These types of tests are mostly you know it or you don't. I refreshed for my HESI over a two day period just going over OB and peds, areas where I had my least exposure. I did fine.

The bottom line is be flexible. Changes in content and testing tools are not uncommon, nor is it uncommon to be required to pass an exit test as criteria for graduation.

Hope it works out for your friend. If she's getting "A"s on or her tests, she should be ok.

kwagner_51 · Dec 3, 2005

I am starting to to see your point. However, when we took HESI before we graduated, the ones who didn't pass the NCLEX scored in the 600's - unlikely to pass NCLEX. Did they remediate them? NO. They told us not to worry about the test. I guess they should have worried about the scores a little closer huh?

They also tried to blame us for not taking it as soon as we graduated. In fact, I talked to an LPN student and he said the reason they are taking this new test is brcause MY class waited so long to take it that alot of us failed.

Several of my friends who took it and failed, took it in June and July. I couldn't afford to take it until October, yet I passed on the first attempt. I scored in the 900's-1000's on the HESI.

what I am seeing from my NS is the test [HESI] told them that these student would not pass, but they did nothing to remediate them!! So their new course of action is to switch tests and hope the grades improve!! :angryfire Seems kinda ridiculous to me!!

Thanks for all your comments!!

____________________________________________

In His grace,

Karen

Failure is NOT an option!!