Nurse exam concerns

Re: “Fail rate worries nursing grads” (Nov. 20 Leader-Post).

As the dean of the Faculty of Nursing, University of Regina, I, too, acknowledge that the initial NCLEX-RN pass rates were disappointing.

Such is the case for the majority of nursing programs in Canada. Concerns about this new licensure exam for registered nurses have been raised by the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing.

Earlier this year we implemented several strategies to support our students with the NCLEX. And because of this, as mentioned in the article, pass rates have already started to increase.

The curriculum for the Saskatchewan Collaborative Bachelor of Science in Nursing (SCBScN) program, offered in partnership with Saskatchewan Polytechnic, is constantly updated.

We are now providing students with instruction and practice on writing NCLEX style questions throughout the program, offering NCLEX workshops, as well as creating access to online NCLEX resources. We have also made available these workshops and remediation sessions for graduates who were unsuccessful with the NCLEX.

Faculty and staff educate students for their many clinical experiences. Our students and our graduates have the knowledge, skills and clinical competence to not only practice as generalists across health-care settings, but to provide safe, ethical patient care.

The disappointing NCLEXRN pass rate is more about computer-adaptive testing than the quality of the SCBScN program. David Gregory, Regina