Spring Coffee with the Dean

UHV School of Nursing Spring Forum

87.5% of First Class taking NCLEX-RN exam are RNs!

87.5 percent of the first class of students taking the NCLEX-RN exam have passed. Despite this, the Texas Board of Nursing has placed the School of Nursing on warning status because the pass rate on initial testing in two consecutive reporting periods was below 80%. In August 2009 the SON graduated its first Second Degree BSN class of 17 students. The initial testing results were 77.78% (7 passed of the 9 testing) for the 2009 reporting period. The initial testing results were 28.57% (2 passed of the 7 testing) for the 2010 reporting period. The students were strongly encouraged to take the test in the 2009 reporting period, however, they did not. On April 5, 2010 a Self Study was submitted to the Texas Board of Nursing. The Self Study evaluated factors which contributed to graduates’ performance and included a description of corrective measures that were implemented. Major problems included inadequate admission criteria for the first cohort, nursing faculty who were new to BSN education and unprepared for the technological requirements, and the logistics of teaching a compressed curriculum. In September 2009 the University did not hold classes for three (3) weeks because of Hurricane Ike. This confounding event compressed this initial class even further. In all actuality the two year pass rate represents one class of 17 students. Currently, fourteen (14) total have passed the exam (5 after the second attempt), two (2) have not passed and one (1) student has not taken the NCLEX-RN exam. Thus, 87.5% of the first class of students taking the exam have passed. From our records 13 of these 14 Registered Nurses are working full time in nursing. Your faculty and dean are totally committed to the educational process in the SON. All good things take time and we are moving in a postive direction! Sincerely, Dr. Tart