NCLEX nursing exam fail rate has Alberta graduates, universities concerned
'We're concerned about whether exam is a good fit for Canadian nursing,' says U of C nursing school dean
A new American-based test is causing an uproar in Alberta's nursing community after there was a 20 per cent drop in the number of graduates who passed the exam needed to work.
- New Brunswick nurses 47% fail rate on NCLEX-RN
- Nova Scotia nursing students have slightly higher failure rate on new test
- Thunder Bay hospital sees more nursing grads fail final exam
Last year 89 per cent of nursing graduates passed, but that has dropped to 69 per cent this year.
One graduate from the University of Lethbridge, who CBC agreed not to name, says she is upset she failed the exam. She is currently working with a temporary licence that will be revoked if she does not retake and pass the exam in the near future.
"I had studied for two to three months before I wrote the exam, and then you got in there and it just seemed like you didn't know anything," she said.
Universities share concerns
The woman says a prep course would have been nice.
"I loved my educational experience but I want to be a nurse and the problem was within my education," she says about her $30,000 university investment.
The University of Lethbridge says the exam was endorsed without the support of nursing schools, and it will be reaching out to all graduates who failed to offer them support as they prepare to rewrite the test.
The new exam is called the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), and it replaces a Canadian-based one. It focuses on areas like pharmacology, and is computer-based not pen-to-paper.
Exam introduced by CARNA
"So we're concerned about whether the exam is a good fit for Canadian nursing," said Dianne Tapp, the dean of the University of Calgary's nursing school.
The College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA), which is the body that regulates nursing and introduced this new exam, says universities have had three-and-a-half years to prepare for the change.
CEO Mary-Anne Robinson says the purpose of the exam is to ensure that nurses are qualified and safe to treat Alberta patients.
She is confident the pass rates will increase as students and universities adapt.
