Admins not worried over lower nursing exam scores

Drexel University nursing students, among others, outscored Penn School of Nursing students on the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX exams, for 2009.

Though students found the news disappointing, administrators are not too concerned.

Over 98 percent of Drexel nursing students passed their Pennsylvania state licensing exams on the first try in 2009, according to a Drexel press release. At Penn, 91.7 percent of students passed.

However, unlike some nursing schools that require students to pass the licensure exam in order to graduate, Penn Nursing takes a different approach, Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the Nursing School Kathleen McCauley said.

“We also give our students a practice examination, but rather than delaying graduation until they pass the test, we use it as a strategy to support our students’ preparation for the actual licensure exam,” McCauley said.

This means that with a review of the course material after graduation, faculty expects that students will not only do well on the NCLEX, but will excel in their nursing careers, McCauley said.

When students are forced at their own expense to continue paying for additional practice exams and courses until they pass a test that will allow them to graduate, then exam pass rates should be near 100 percent, she explained. Penn does not require this.

Nursing students were caught off guard by the results.

“These results are definitely surprising. I thought we did better,” Nursing senior Svetlana Sakhnovsky said.

Others said they do not consider the test results particularly consequential.

“Even though the NCLEX is very important and essential to becoming a nurse, it is not the end-all, be-all,” Nursing junior Elizabeth Bennett said. “There is no test to show how competent you are as a nurse.”

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