TITLE:
The Voices of Graduates: Informing Faculty Practices to Establish Best Practices for Readying NCLEX-RN Applicants
AUTHORS:
Mary Hanson-Zalot, Angela Gerolamo, Julia Ward
KEYWORDS:
Students, NCLEX-RN Success, Qualitative Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.9 No.2,
February
18,
2019
ABSTRACT: Changes in the National Council of State Boards of Nursing along with other factors influence graduates’ successful completion of a nursing program and the licensing examination. Literature is scarce in the area of examining student perceptions of preparing for and taking the NCLEX-RN examination. Our study sought to fill this gap in knowledge by conducting a focus group and interviews with individuals who passed the NCLEX-RN on their first attempt and those who did not. This was a descriptive qualitative study which used semi-structured interviews and a focus group to examine graduates’ perceptions related to preparing for and taking the NCLEX-RN. Four themes emerged from the data: messages from faculty, preparation strategies, exam readiness, and the disconnection between pretest and intra-test experiences. Findings point towards the importance of implementing a variety of strategies to ensure that graduates successfully pass the NCLEX-RN.