LEARN HOW A PENNSYLVANIA SON IMPROVED ITS NCLEX PASS RATE BY 43%
THE NURSING PROGRAM DID A 'COMPLETE' TURNAROUND TO CREATE 'GOOD, STRONG NURSES'
A nursing school in Pennsylvania* gained significant benefits since joining ATI as a Complete Partner. Most specifically? The program saw a 43% jump in its NCLEX pass rate from 2015 to 2017. Similar pass rates have followed.
* School policy prevented faculty at this nursing program from being identified by name.
CHALLENGE
The staff and students at this Pennsylvania school were anxious. First-time pass rates were despairingly low, leading staff to worry about their jobs and students to worry about the program closing.
SOLUTION
Signing up as an ATI Complete Partner gave faculty and students access to nearly all of ATI’s solutions and resources.
RESULTS
Faculty have specific tools to help them prepare students for their licensure exam, and students have gained confidence in their skills and knowledge. Today, students are prepared for the NCLEX and are passing with impressive numbers.
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CHANGE CAN BE HARD — BUT REWARDING
The program at this Pennsylvania school was in a desperate situation. Its chair had worked as a professor at the university for more than 15 years, so when she took the job of overseeing the department, she did so with eyes wide open. She’d personally experienced the gradual decrease in first-time pass rates and heard tenure-track faculty talk in worried voices about losing their jobs. She had done her best to reassure anxious graduate students about whether the program was going to close.
The chair knew she needed to make momentous changes to turn things around. She started with the difficult decision to replace key members of her leadership team. Next, she looked at the lack of success delivered by the school’s current vendor’s products. As she reviewed new options, she became convinced that ATI’s Complete Partnership was the solution that would lift her program and propel it forward.
Faculty were uneasy about the changes — and resistant. However, the program's new director of its BSN program encouraged them to stay positive, let the changes happen, and see where they led. She explained that they couldn’t just “sit on [their] hands and leave things as they were.” Instead, she reminded them of how everyone wanted to see improvement in the program.
“We want what's best for our students. We want to create those good, strong nurses, and that takes change,” she explained.
REALIZING THE BENEFITS OF BECOMING A COMPLETE PARTNER
Initially, faculty expected their workloads to increase when the program signed on as a Complete Partner. But, as educators became familiar with ATI’s resources, they got excited about their successes. “There are so many pieces that keep [students’] nurse brains going,” the BSN director said.
“We see that in clinical, and we hear it from the clinical partners,” she added. She also explained how some students doubted their abilities before entering the clinical setting. Then, all of a sudden, she said, the knowledge would “just take hold.”
“They're being nurses. They're being nurses in clinical,” she said. “It's amazing.”
Other Complete benefits for students include:
- Providing enhanced test-taking skills
- Making them better at applying theory to practice
- Improving their critical thinking.
Plus, students are getting their “nurse brain developed,” she added. “It's wonderful.”
Ultimately, each of these aspects lead to students being better prepared for the NCLEX. At this program, in fact, as recently as 2015 less than 55% of first-time test-takers passed the exam. But with ATI’s support and solutions, that number jumped dramatically. Within a couple of years, pass rates soared to nearly 97%. And pass rates have stayed above the 90th percentile except for slight dips in 2020 and in 2021 — a common experience for schools weathering the challenges of COVID-19.
THE COMPLETE PARTNERSHIP STARTS WITH PEOPLE
"I just want to remind other nursing school deans that ATI has unbelievable, experienced nurse educators” and “unbelievably strong” customer service, the program chair said.
“It's so personable. It's really helpful,” she said. She especially appreciates the meetings in which updates on nursing data specific to her school are presented. “It helps inform our decision-making.”
She said, “Everybody believes in ATI — all of our faculty. Everybody does believe strongly in it.
“We are all so attached to ATI, to [its] outstanding staff. They are amazing. They answer our questions, provide that support, and we feel like we have a friend we can talk to.”
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PEOPLE ALSO ASK ...
WHAT IS NGN NURSING?
NGN is an acronym for Next Generation NCLEX, which is an evolved version of the national licensure exam that nursing students take after graduation to become a registered nurse (RN). The focal point of revising the existing NCLEX is to assess candidates' clinical judgment skills, which the NCSBN has determined are a crucial part of a new nurses' decision-making.
WHAT IS THE NCLEX PASS RATE?
The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) regularly compiles and releases data that summarizes the pass rates of U.S. and international nursing candidates who take the exam. The pass rates describe the performance of both the NCLEX-PN and NCLEX-RN.
WILL THE NCLEX BE EASIER IN 2023?
On April 1, 2023, the NCSBN will launch the Next Generation NCLEX, a new version of the exam that nursing graduates take to earn their license to practice. This version will include new questions designed to assess clinical judgment, which is a complex decision-making process nurses use when treating clients. Developing clinical judgment skills is a challenging aspect of being a nurse, in addition to having nursing knowledge.