After carefully thinking about it, I have decided not to do nursing. I do however thank everyone for the advice they gave me. I would like to do nursing, but virtually all of the schools in my area use exit exams, which I find are unfair. The more I research them, the more I dislike them. Here is just one recent article I found, in which the ENTIRE nursing class failed the exit exam. Unbelievable.
The way the exit HESI was explained to us, at my school, was..."It is used as a predictor of who will pass the NCLEX-RN. It has been proven that those who pass the exit HESI with an 850 or better, have a 90% chance of passing the NCLEX-RN." BTW, my school has a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX-RN, which leads me to believe that the Exit HESI is doing its job.
That being said, it is my understanding that the exit HESI is set up similarly to the NCLEX-RN. In other words it is to test the critical thinking abilities of the students. Let's face it, all of the practical experience of starting IV's, inserting Foley's, etc., will do you absolutely no good, if you cannot think critically in the event one of your patient's begins to go down. If you cannot rely upon your nursing knowledge to know what to do in this event, then all of your practical knowledge will do you absolutely no good and could possibly cause your patient a great deal of harm.
So you see, there is a practical application for the Exit HESI, and I would much rather take all three of the HESI's that I will take during Nursing School and know that I have the knowledge base to help my patients to the very best of my ability.
don't worry too much, the job market is beyond horrible anyways for us soon-to-be grads and this is def not a 'high-demand' profession as falsely stated, in terms of current opportunity
"BTW, my school has a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX-RN, which leads me to believe that the Exit HESI is doing its job."
So the only purpose of the HESI is to allow schools to have a 100% NCLEX pass rate?
And more importantly, is there any justification at all for exit exams in nursing school when medical school students do not have to take any exit exam to get their MD? How can anyone justify holding nursing students to a higher standard than medical students?
"BTW, my school has a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX-RN, which leads me to believe that the Exit HESI is doing its job."
So the only purpose of the HESI is to allow schools to have a 100% NCLEX pass rate?
And more importantly, is there any justification at all for exit exams in nursing school when medical school students do not have to take any exit exam to get their MD? How can anyone justify holding nursing students to a higher standard than medical students?
But nurses are required to catch and prevent the mistakes of doctors so I can see how they are held to higher standards.
Doctors are not interested in nurses catching their mistakes. I have 6 doctors in my family and many of them are not big fans of nurses. My cousin wrote up a nurse for calling him by his first name instead of doctor. True story.
Doctors are not interested in nurses catching their mistakes. I have 6 doctors in my family and many of them are not big fans of nurses. My cousin wrote up a nurse for calling him by his first name instead of doctor. True story.
Funny, I've never heard of a doctor acting in such a way.
Doctors are not interested in nurses catching their mistakes. I have 6 doctors in my family and many of them are not big fans of nurses. My cousin wrote up a nurse for calling him by his first name instead of doctor. True story.
This doesn't really make much sense to me, but maybe I'm misreading it. Nurses are meant to catch doctor mistakes, that doesn't mean the doctor has to like or appreciate it. Most doctors don't like it when they are corrected by a nurse (or anyone else for that matter) but just because a doctor isn't interested in it, doesn't mean you shouldn't still be able to do it.
My school uses A LOT of exit Hesi's. They use one for each clinical and then cumulative ones in the final semester. If you were taught the material then I think its suitable. How is it any different from taking a final? Some people aren't great test takers but you know, that's something you have to overcome in this world. Everything is done by a paper exam at some point. When you get hired by a hospital they usually give you a pharmacology exam, you don't even get two shots for that, you get one and one only. You fail, you don't get hired.
Practical skills are great but just having practical skills doesn't make you a better nurse either. Some experienced nurses don't know how to put in IV's or have difficulties due to small veins on the patient ect. (some people don't even do that during nursing school and even if you did if you're in a specialty where that rarely happens you're going to lose that skill). Hands-on skills can be taught to most people what sets you apart is the knowledge you have of it.
And more importantly, is there any justification at all for exit exams in nursing school when medical school students do not have to take any exit exam to get their MD? How can anyone justify holding nursing students to a higher standard than medical students?
It sounds like you made a wise choice not doing nursing. And writing up for calling by the first name? Sounds like Cousin MD has some issues. And who cares if you can start an IV and put a Foley in? If you can't recognize that your patient is knocking on death's door by seeing certain lab changes or signs and symptoms, what good are hands on skills?? And who says there's no MD exit exam????? In fact, Respiratory Therapists, Pharmacists, Physical therapists, pretty much ANYONE in the medical field takes a licensure exam . We have the NCLEX, doctors have the USMLE(check the link below). And you really think these schools just throw students out there to get a license???? No sir, many of these schools have BIGGER exit exams to get endorsed for an exam like that....do some research before talking out next time. A lot of nursing students complain about 75 questions...check out their exam.
Not only that, pharmacists and MD's take a LOT bigger entrance exam(MCAT and PCAT), than an 8th grade level TEAS test(and yes the TEAS is 8th grade level).
I understand, and if I could do it all over again, I may have chosen radiology or sonography.
The NCLEX is not an exit exam, it is a licensure exam. It will not stop you from getting your BSN or whatever degree or diploma was awarded to you. And, as previously mentioned, you can take it multiple times.
The exit HESI, however, can and does stop you from getting your degree. That is the problem I have with it.
The exit HESI was designed to predict NCLEX pass rates and identify problem areas to work on before taking the boards. That is very helpful.
However, schools exploit it and use it to inflate their NCLEX pass rate. Schools should be confident enough in their program to graduate students that successfully pass all of the academic and clinical requirements. But many are not, at my school if you got below an 850 twice, you were out of the program..no degree, no ATT to take boards.
They do this after the students work hard for years, oh yeah, and pay tens of thousands of dollars to the program.
I scored high on HESI but I saw friends who took it twice, barely got below 850 and now have no BSN and no ATT to take boards.
I wonder if some students will change their tune if/when this happens to them.
"BTW, my school has a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX-RN, which leads me to believe that the Exit HESI is doing its job."
So the only purpose of the HESI is to allow schools to have a 100% NCLEX pass rate?
And more importantly, is there any justification at all for exit exams in nursing school when medical school students do not have to take any exit exam to get their MD? How can anyone justify holding nursing students to a higher standard than medical students?
Med students take lots of "exit exams." They are called "final exams" and many courses have them. It's all in the language. The HESI is simply a final exam and many classes in every field of study has final exams you have to pass to pass a particular course and/or move on to the next phase of study. Med students take lots of exams in med school -- and if they don't pass them, they don't graduate.
The problem is not the HESI ... the problem is in the way some (but not all) schools use it. Some schools grade the students too easily during the early semesters of the program, passing students through to their senior level courses, taking their money while doing a lousy job of teaching -- and not the students who aren't learning the necessary material accountable for the material. Then for their final course (or after their final course), they must pass the HESI as a "final exam" for their program. It is at that point that they are first held accountable for all the material they failed to learn in the previous semesters. That's the problem -- not that they are held accountable in the final stage of their program, but that they were NOT held accountable earlier on. They were allowed to pass to the next course (and pay more money) when they hadn't sufficiently mastered the beginner-level material.
There is nothing wrong with having "final exams" be they "home made" or purchased from the HESI company. However, like any other tool, final exams can be mis-used.
And ... any doctor who "writes up" a nurse for using his first name is a neither a good person nor a smart physician. That's nothing to be proud of. There is lots of research showing that patient outcomes are better when there are positive collegial relationship between the disciplines. In addition, any physician who openly antagonizes the nursing staff is begging for trouble. I doubt he has positive, productive working relationships with his colleagues -- and that's not good on either a personal or professional level.
On a little more thought ... I guess that your family is "looking down" on you for considering careers in nursing, radiology, etc. as they seem to have so little respect for their healthcare colleagues outside of medicine. And it may explain some of your fear of failing the HESI.
Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.
Doctors are not interested in nurses catching their mistakes. I have 6 doctors in my family and many of them are not big fans of nurses. My cousin wrote up a nurse for calling him by his first name instead of doctor. True story.
Well that is certainly soemthing to be proud of! What an incredible person. When the nurses are calling him/her by their last name I can pretty much guarantee they are substituting a much ruder name in their minds. Something like "pompous jerk" only it starts with an A..........:smokin::smokin:
:smokin:
ms_miyagi
57 Posts
The way the exit HESI was explained to us, at my school, was..."It is used as a predictor of who will pass the NCLEX-RN. It has been proven that those who pass the exit HESI with an 850 or better, have a 90% chance of passing the NCLEX-RN." BTW, my school has a 100% pass rate on the NCLEX-RN, which leads me to believe that the Exit HESI is doing its job.
That being said, it is my understanding that the exit HESI is set up similarly to the NCLEX-RN. In other words it is to test the critical thinking abilities of the students. Let's face it, all of the practical experience of starting IV's, inserting Foley's, etc., will do you absolutely no good, if you cannot think critically in the event one of your patient's begins to go down. If you cannot rely upon your nursing knowledge to know what to do in this event, then all of your practical knowledge will do you absolutely no good and could possibly cause your patient a great deal of harm.
So you see, there is a practical application for the Exit HESI, and I would much rather take all three of the HESI's that I will take during Nursing School and know that I have the knowledge base to help my patients to the very best of my ability.