Spurlock’s paper aims to examine the effectiveness of using HESI Exit Exams to accurately predict NCLEX-RN pass rates. The research will determine if there is a correlation between the imposed mandatory pass rates of HESI Exit Exams imposed by institutions to allow their students to sit for the NCLEX-RN.
The variable being considered is whether students taking the HESI Exit Exam failing to achieve a score of 850 or higher could improve their scores. Would they do better on the NCLEX-RN if they had to take a review course and multiple attempts to achieve the minimum HESI Exit Exam score before being allowed to sit for the actual NCLEX-RN with the expectation that they would pass?
The population that was chosen for this study to be carried out on was a large nursing specific school. If would make for an even more effective study if there was more than just a single school chosen to draw the sample population from. This allows for two comparision of the first graduating class and two more for the following class. Spurlock chose to study two separate May graduation classes which does improve accuracy and errors made by studying a single group of nursing students. By only using nursing students and the idea that remediation and multiple test attempts was required to take the NCLEX-RN to improve scores relates directly to our nursing educational institution.
Spurlock’s study was published in 2008, received on December 31st and accepted on June 26, 2006. All of the sources that were cited in the paper were from the year 2000 or later. The data being presented and compared in this study is current at the time the paper was submitted. Spurlock did the due diligence of using the licensing status website to get the most current NCLEX-RN p...
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...ion and to be licensed by the state board of nursing that they may be doing more harm than good. By pushing students solely on their ability to achieve a good HESI Exit Exam score they may be misusing students time by repeated test taking allowing them to progress to being able to take the NCLEX-RN. Spurlock points out that the only score that has some statistical signifigance is the first HESI Exit Exam score. By allowing multiple retakes of that test to achieve a passing score is not actually doing them getting students to prepare for taking the NCLEX-RN as shown by the results that were documented. His final conclusion seems to be an apt way to conclude on the effectiveness of NCLEX-RN prep done by nursing schools. “Focusing on studying for an exit examination that has little use in predicting NCLEX-RN failure seems a poor use of end-of-program students’ time.”
Nursing, as a crucial part of the health care system, keeps evolving while dealing with an increasingly complex clinical situation that involves quality of patient care. Therefore, to successfully handle these scenarios, nursing needs to become more advanced, clinically and academically. A DNP degree is needed in this situation because according to Dunbar- Jacob, Navito & Khalil (2013), a DNP degree is considered to have more impact on nursing than a Master’s or Bachelor’s degree due to the advanced clinical education a DNP provides (p. 425). Hence, the DNP degree has an enormous impact in nursing practice especially in terms of improving clinical care, promoting leadership roles, and improving educational status.
Since this test has been devised, the number one question everybody is asking is, “ isn’t it unfair to base a student’s entire future on one test, when he or she simply could have had a bad day when taking the test”? The president Kirk T. Schroder of the Virginia Board of Education, answer this question by saying, “First of all, these tests are untimed, so no student is under arbitrary time pressure in taking the test.
A young girl is excited about graduating high school and attending her first year at college. She tries hard at school and receives above-average grades. She is an active student involved in student council, band, the drama team, and peer tutoring, but her ACT scores are extremely low, disqualifying her from many universities. The young girl represents many students who are not successful at taking standardized tests because they have not developed the advanced skills required to take a test like the ACT or SAT. An academically motivated and responsible student should not be prevented from attending college because a "standard" test is not his or her standard. The current methods of testing for the ACT or SAT should be abolished and replaced with modified and less "standard" questions to better measure a student's learning potential. In addition to different testing techniques, a student's learning potential should be a measure of a culmination of activities and methods; testing should be less important than other methods in determining a student's learning potential, if not the least important. Standardized testing must evolve to encompass a more diverse student population, and it should not be the primary factor in measuring learning potential.
The SAT's have sometimes been the deciding factor when determining a student's admission to a certain college, but recently colleges have stopped regarding SAT scores as the most important factor, and in some cases, colleges are now not even requiring applicants to submit their scores. This change in significance of the SAT's is due to recent controversy over the fairness of the test. According to Fair Test (2001) three hundred and eighty-eight schools do not require applicants to submit their SAT scores, and hundreds more do not place much emphasis on the scores. Because of the recent controversy and the number of schools not looking at or de-emphasizing the SAT's, the College Board, (the company in charge of designing, administering, and grading the test), has decided to make several changes to the format of the SAT's (which was just revised in 1994). These changes will take effect in the year 2005.
For example, at Whitman College, in using these factors, they determine altogether, whether or not a student should be admitted to their school. However, they mentioned that, “SAT scores alone neither admit nor deny anyone.” They look at an applicant in a holistic way while maintaining true to the idea that the SAT can determine a student’s success, just not alone.
Bloodgood, Robert A., et al. “A Change to Pass/Fail Grading in the First Two Years at
Nursing 231 has helped me grow academically and it has also helped me become more confident in myself. Prior to 231 I had little confident in myself due to my test grades. My grades have not improved nor have they gotten worse, but I now have a different mindset. I have realized that I am a bad test taker and that is what I need to improve. However, I am an excellent nursing student and I will soon become an excellent nurse. I have learned that I should not let a C average discourage me because that does not reflect on the type of nurse I will be.
This paper serves to inform individuals about the benefits, challenges and education facing nurses. In the review of literature, one source is obtained from the SVSU database which describe the benefits of nursing; two additional SVSU database sources will also describe the challenges. In addition, a case study is evaluated, which shows the correlation between the career and the pass/failure of the NCLEX-RN exam. This paper concludes with an analysis of the information gathered, showing why nursing is a field that others should consider as a career.
Although standardized tests will still be given to students everywhere, the pass fail system must stop. There are alternatives that may be taken to give every student a fair chance while still keeping the effectiveness of the tests. One possibility could be to make the final exam a large part of the student’s grade but not a determinant of whether the student passes or fails. A student who understands and learned the material over the entire semester should not have to repeat a course just because of one bad test result.
Medina, Jennifer. "New Standards Mean More F's In State Testing." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 July 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2014
King, I. M. (1994). Quality of llfe and goal attainment. Nursing Science Quarterly, 7(1), 29-32.
Norm-referenced standardized tests (NRST) used for different administration over the decades. The NRST classifies individuals. It highlights achievements differences between and among students to develop reliable scores. In school systems NRSTs helps identified students for remedial programs. The U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1992), establish a standardized test as one that uses (NAGC - ED Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Testing. (n.d.) (Retrieved from http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=314). Similar procedures for application and scoring in order to ensure that results from different people are comparable (Bond, 2010). NRST compares the performance of students with other students from large groups. Using a standardized test like the NRST will grade students in order from high to low achievers. A valid population must be from the widest range of the student population. Accordingly, the assessment must also report the status of student achievement “broken down by gender, ethnicity, disability, economic disadvantage, English proficiency, and...
...ram many people with 3.5 grade point averages and above who met the minimum requirements were still not admitted because of the rigorous selection process. You attend four years of college to receive your education needed to be qualified to take the NCLEX examination after graduation. After graduation you are still not licensed to practice nursing. You must pass your state boards to get your nursing license. Many people do not realize the extent of education and experience the career requires. While in college you also complete clinicals in different areas in nursing practice such as geriatrics, pediatrics, and mental health units. You gain key experience in the hospitals before even graduating. If people truly understood the hours of studying and clinical experience needed for this career I feel I would be much more respected in society.
Every year many students are kept from graduating high school because of these exit exams. This makes students and parents very angry. Students who have had high passing grades throughout high school do not understand why they cannot pass exit exams. Sometimes the student blames him or herself by thinking that he or she did not learn enough, when in fact there is nothing wrong without heir knowledge. These students do not realize that they lack good test taking skills. Parents are angry that their child was kept from graduating because of a single test, even though the child had all the he credits required. This situation occurred to Lee Hicks, another student from Paris (texas) High School. Had he lived 14 miles away in Oklahoma, which has no statewide exit test, he'd have received a diploma and would now be serving his country in the Navy. Instead Hicks severs customers in a Paris supermarket; he won management's Aggressive Hospitality Award for 1996. "He's a great employee, a bright young man--extremely hardworking," says store director, Larry Legg.
Opponents of entrance exams argue that they do not exactly measure the students’ potential and competency. However, the exams really evaluate an individual's ability for the candidates. Perhaps most importantly, universit...