Research Article Analyzation: A Study of the Usefulness of the HESI Exit Exam in Predicting NCLEX-RN Failure

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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.”

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