Writing multiple times?

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OK I may get flamed big time for this and I am not trying to insult anyone but I have a question. Does anyone else ever think that some people should choose a different professional path when they read posts about having failed the NCLEX multiple times? I did read one post from someone who failed 14 times. I mean really? I will admit that I am Canadian and I have no experience with the NCLEX but do you really want a nurse that had to write dozen times before they could get a license? We get three shots and that's it you are done. I think three times is plenty. I can't imagine writing 10+ times and not questioning that maybe I shouldn't be a nurse. I know some people say it due to being a bad test taker but how did they get through school?

What does everyone else think?

Specializes in Oncology/hematology.

I'm a senior and will be taking the NCLEX this coming May. I'm going to a CC and they are all about their pass rates. We have close to a 100% pass rate. I don't plan on studying at all before I take it. I hope this is the right strategy, but figure the schooling I received should prepare me.

I blame this trend in failing students on private and pop-up nursing schools just trying to make money. It's sad. I have watched a ton of my fellow students be asked to leave, because they were not going to make it as nurses. Harsh? Yes. But, who wants a sub par student becoming a nurse and taking care of them? Other schools don't care. They want you there until graduation for that tuition money.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.
I'm a senior and will be taking the NCLEX this coming May. I'm going to a CC and they are all about their pass rates. We have close to a 100% pass rate. I don't plan on studying at all before I take it. I hope this is the right strategy, but figure the schooling I received should prepare me.

I blame this trend in failing students on private and pop-up nursing schools just trying to make money. It's sad. I have watched a ton of my fellow students be asked to leave, because they were not going to make it as nurses. Harsh? Yes. But, who wants a sub par student becoming a nurse and taking care of them? Other schools don't care. They want you there until graduation for that tuition money.

You can tell I work with mostly elderly patients.When you started off with " I'm a senior" I thought you meant you are a little old lady.:roflmao:

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Frankly, after reading some of the posts here from our American fellow nurses, I'm afraid to wind up in hospital down there.

Passing the registration exam after only multiple attempts, others questioning what pain is (you are a drama queen if you don't meet their expectations), seeing all patients as drug seekers, etc.

I'm just glad I carry a tonne of travel insurance when I venture south of the 49th!

Ouch, Fiona, that's an awfully broad brush stroke, don't you think? Can't imagine you'd be pleased to read what some American nurses might just think of Canada's nursing/hopsital system, I'd be willing to bet. And it's not always American new grads who can't pass the NCLEX; there's a fair share of foreign nurses who can't, regardless of the fact that they're nurses in their home countries. And that, therefore, would include Canada.

Why turn this into an "us versus them" thing? Doesn't make you look better for it, I assure you.

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I'm a senior and will be taking the NCLEX this coming May. I'm going to a CC and they are all about their pass rates.

A senior in a two-year college? I thought that term only applied to four-year institutions...(as in freshman, soph, junior, senior)?

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The NCLEX indeed does not assure the world, really, that you're qualified to be a nurse. But that's not the real problem. The real problem is that nursing school teaches you NOTHING relevant to real world nursing...you learn to be a nurse by working as a nurse, and by having good sense, plain and simple.

Precisely. The NCLEX, people often forget, is a minimum-competency exam, nothing more. Not a proficiency exam, minimum competency only.

I always thought of it as a License to Learn. :)

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Specializes in ICU.

If you are in an ADN program, then in your last year you are a "senior." After all, you are taking the same nursing classes as the "senior" 4-year nursing students, for the most part.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

Precisely. The NCLEX, people often forget, is a minimum-competency exam, nothing more. Not a proficiency exam, minimum competency only.

I always thought of it as a License to Learn. :)

Agreed...the REAL competency comes when you are deemed competent to take care of patients; that's why if you are incompetent, you lose the license; if one is willing to be proficient and an expert in this business, it will be up to the licensed nurse. :yes:

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Ouch, Fiona, that's an awfully broad brush stroke, don't you think? Can't imagine you'd be pleased to read what some American nurses might just think of Canada's nursing/hopsital system, I'd be willing to bet. And it's not always American new grads who can't pass the NCLEX; there's a fair share of foreign nurses who can't, regardless of the fact that they're nurses in their home countries. And that, therefore, would include Canada.

Oh, we read all about what Americans think of our healthcare/nursing/hospital system all the time here. We have that nasty universal healthcare that Americans are so afraid of.

Our system allows us three attempts at the registration exam and then we are toast. Remedial education is required.

Believe it or not, most Canadians don't see the US as a promised land for employment and not as many of us are heading south as in previous decades. I work with nurses who went south in the 90s and 00s, passed the NCLEX first try, hated the system they worked in and headed home. Several even broke their contracts due to racism from their patients that would never have been permitted here at home.

When we've had the occasional failure at writing either CRNE or CPNRE, the nurse involved has been called into the managers office and asked to explain their failure. A new grad nurse works at a lower rate of pay until the exam is passed. When the exam is passed on first writing, the nurse gets a retro paycheque back to the date of hire for full wages. When I brought in my PASS notice 13 years ago, I got a nice lump sum cheque of over $1000. You don't get the retro pay if you pass on the second or god forbid third attempt. In all the years I've worked I've only ever met one person who failed all three attempts. Walked out of the building by security. We've heard of the occasional nurse being removed mid procedure from the OR (that was during a period of massive overseas hiring which resulted in more local exam failures than normal)

I don't care if it doesn't make me "look better for it". I want to know that my healthcare system is staffed by reasonably competent staff and that the licensing colleges are looking out for the membership and the public. It is difficult enough to remove a poorly performing nurse from the system without having to worry about those who took umpteem tries to pass the exam.

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Specializes in Oncology/hematology.
You can tell I work with mostly elderly patients.When you started off with " I'm a senior" I thought you meant you are a little old lady.:roflmao:

That's okay, I'm kind of both. I'm a senior at my school and I'm 43, so that's pretty old for a student. :)

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Specializes in Oncology/hematology.

Community colleges have seniors also. I took 2 years of pre reqs and was in a 2 year nursing program, so I put in my 4 years. I'll have one year of online leadership classes to take during my BSN bridge, but that will be all that I haven't accomplished with my AN.

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Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.
Ouch, Fiona, that's an awfully broad brush stroke, don't you think? Can't imagine you'd be pleased to read what some American nurses might just think of Canada's nursing/hopsital system, I'd be willing to bet. And it's not always American new grads who can't pass the NCLEX; there's a fair share of foreign nurses who can't, regardless of the fact that they're nurses in their home countries. And that, therefore, would include Canada.

Oh, we read all about what Americans think of our healthcare/nursing/hospital system all the time here. We have that nasty universal healthcare that Americans are so afraid of.

Our system allows us three attempts at the registration exam and then we are toast. Remedial education is required.

Believe it or not, most Canadians don't see the US as a promised land for employment and not as many of us are heading south as in previous decades. I work with nurses who went south in the 90s and 00s, passed the NCLEX first try, hated the system they worked in and headed home. Several even broke their contracts due to racism from their patients that would never have been permitted here at home.

When we've had the occasional failure at writing either CRNE or CPNRE, the nurse involved has been called into the managers office and asked to explain their failure. A new grad nurse works at a lower rate of pay until the exam is passed. When the exam is passed on first writing, the nurse gets a retro paycheque back to the date of hire for full wages. When I brought in my PASS notice 13 years ago, I got a nice lump sum cheque of over $1000. You don't get the retro pay if you pass on the second or god forbid third attempt. In all the years I've worked I've only ever met one person who failed all three attempts. Walked out of the building by security. We've heard of the occasional nurse being removed mid procedure from the OR (that was during a period of massive overseas hiring which resulted in more local exam failures than normal)

I don't care if it doesn't make me "look better for it". I want to know that my healthcare system is staffed by reasonably competent staff and that the licensing colleges are looking out for the membership and the public. It is difficult enough to remove a poorly performing nurse from the system without having to worry about those who took umpteem tries to pass the exam.

So, why is it that you're wanting to work in the stinky old US healthcare system?
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So, why is it that you're wanting to work in the stinky old US healthcare system?

I've never claimed to want to work in the US. Nor have the majority of the regular Canadian posters.

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