WVU School of Nursing achieves 100 percent NCLEX pass rate
School is ranked in the top 100 nursing schools
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University School of Nursing Class of 2014 achieved a perfect 100 percent pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination – Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN) this year.
The NCLEX-RN is the licensing exam for registered nurses. By passing this exam, newly graduated nursing students prove their competence and become licensed to practice nursing. All 120 WVU nursing students – 94 from the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program and 26 from the second-degree bachelor’s in nursing (BA/BS-BSN) program — are now licensed registered nurses in the state of West Virginia.
“A 100 percent NCLEX-RN pass rate is outstanding for any program,” Tara Hulsey, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the WVU School of Nursing, said. “But in a program of our size, with over 100 first-time testers being successful, it is truly a testament to the dedication of our faculty, the commitment of our students, and the rigor of our program.”
This success is fitting for a school ranked among the top 100 nursing schools in the United States. The School of Nursing ranked 82nd among the top nursing schools according to the U.S. News and World Report’s 2016 list of Best Graduate Schools.
“I am so proud to be part of an organization that understands its purpose is to improve the health and lives of our citizens through service and outstanding clinical care,” Clay Marsh, M.D., vice president of WVU Health Sciences, said. “Great leaders like Tara Hulsey in the School of Nursing and our other Health Sciences deans recruit great and talented people who are committed to a better University, community, state, country, and world.”
The school rose 17 places from its 2011 ranking at number 99.
The rankings are based on ratings by deans from 246 nursing schools with masters or doctoral programs accredited by either the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, measuring factors such as faculty resources, research activity, and student selectivity and achievement.
Elisabeth N. Shelton, Ph.D., R.N., associate dean of academics in the WVU School of Nursing, attributes this class’s NCLEX 100 percent pass rate to a curriculum revision that began in 2011. The Class of 2014 is the first class to benefit from the new curriculum, which is based on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing Education.
“We have very dedicated faculty who have implemented strategies for NCLEX success throughout the entire curriculum, including standardized testing that allows students to know whether they are meeting national competencies,” Dr. Shelton said.
The NCLEX-RN uses Computerized Adaptive Testing, which tailors test questions to the candidate’s individual ability level and achieves faster, more accurate, and fairer test results. Every time the candidate answers an item, the computer selects the next question based on all the previous answers and the difficulty of those questions. The number and difficulty of questions varies among candidates, but on average candidates answer about 120 questions.