In 2023, Columbus State University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduates posted their highest National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) pass rate in recent years. The School of Nursing’s pass rate for 2023 was 96.67% on students’ initial testing attempt. All 2023 graduates passed the exam after a second attempt, reflecting a 100% pass rate for the School of Nursing Class of 2023.

Columbus State’s NCLEX success exceeds both state and national averages for 2023. In Georgia, 90.3% of nursing students passed the NCLEX exam on their first attempt, while 88.57% of all NCLEX-takers in the U.S. passed on their initial attempt.

Administered by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), the National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX, tests the competency of U.S. and Canadian nursing school graduates. Before nurses can enter the profession, they must graduate from a recognized nursing program, meet the specific requirements of their state board of nursing, and pass the NCLEX with a minimum score determined by the NCSBN.

While the previous version of the NCLEX relied heavily on the memorization of textbook clinical knowledge, the next-generation version launched in April 2023 utilizes “real-world case studies to better measure a nurse’s ability to think more critically and make the right decisions,” according to NCSBN. Dr. Chandler Padgett, APRN, FNP-C (pictured), who is both a Columbus State nursing alumna and faculty member, sees the change as an advantage for Columbus State nursing students.

“Nursing students at Columbus State have long learned through medical case studies, simulation laboratories and clinical experiences that are embedded throughout our curriculum,” explained the assistant professor and 2019 Columbus State graduate. “With the NCLEX now better recognizing the importance of that experience over memorized textbook information, our students stand to excel even further in the new format.”

According to Dr. Tammy Condrey, RN, MSN, CNE, the school’s director, students’ 2023 NCLEX scores were an eight-point improvement over 2022. She credits the exam’s recent format change that better aligns with the school’s instructional methods. She also said a full return to students’ hands-on experiences — opportunities that were limited in 2021 and 2022 by the pandemic and stricter hospital protocols — were key.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and higher education’s nationwide move to virtual instruction emphasized the importance of students’ hands-on experience,” Condrey said. “Virtual learning and limited hospital rotation placements meant, in some cases, finding alternatives to helping our student gain better bedside and patient-focused experience to ensure they performed their best on their nursing board exam.”

Condrey (pictured) emphasized one of the school’s greatest assets is the collective professional clinical experience found among its faculty, and how that experience enriches classroom learning and NCLEX readiness. Currently, more than 95% of the school’s full-time faculty have at least 10 years of professional or clinical practice on top of their advanced degrees — meaning students benefit from a practitioner’s real-life perspective. The faculty also represent nursing specialties that include critical care, pediatrics and obstetrics — experience honed over time and specialties in high demand by today’s healthcare employers.

“Our faculty are a microcosm of the knowledge and specialties our students will encounter at the patient’s bedside and in the hospital setting,” Condrey said. “Our students benefit tremendously from their mentoring in the classroom as well as in the clinical setting throughout their hospital rotations and preceptorships.”

WELL-ROUNDED EXPERIENCE KEY TO NCLEX SUCCESS

Condrey credits the school’s robust academic program as laying a strong foundation for students’ NCLEX success — which includes hands-on experiences in the school’s simulation labs and through hospital rotations. Recent graduates like Gage Dempsey, RN, agree.

“My classmates, professors and clinical nursing experiences were the reasons I passed the NCLEX,” said Dempsey (pictured), a 2021 graduate and Columbus native now working at St. Francis-Emory Healthcare. “During junior year, we learned a plethora of information, and then senior year we placed it all together to build the bigger picture. The mentorship, encouragement and knowledge I learned from the faculty and my fellow students pushed me to be the nurse and man I am today.”

Current students like senior Karder Sampson, also a Columbus native, expect the new NCLEX exam structure will complement the way they learn.

“I believe the new testing approach will encourage students to develop a thought process similar to a nurse working in a hospital,” the current senior majoring in nursing said. “It will make students think more critically, which will likely get them closer to the thought process that they will need when they work as a registered nurse.”

More than two years after passing his boards and beginning his career, Dempsey is still relying on the classroom foundation he gained leading up to taking the NCLEX.

“I reference all of my coursework we learned in nursing school on a daily basis — especially critical care, pharmacology and pathophysiology,” he said. “I still remember certain mnemonics, pictures or charts that our professors taught us to learn the material.”

St. Francis-Emory Healthcare’s director of education and professional practice, Lynn Goree MSN, RN, indicated that, for nurses, learning doesn’t end with graduation or the NCLEX. It is a career-long endeavor that includes ongoing professional and leadership development. She said that can include advanced education, which many hospitals are willing to underwrite through tuition assistance and scholarships.

“Continuing education benefits the nurse, the organization and the patient. It translates into a higher quality of care for our patients — and it is incorporated into the [American Nursing Association] code of ethics,” the 1994 Columbus State alumna said. “Regardless of where a nurse is in their career, there is always something new to learn in healthcare, and we can always become better at what we do.”

NEW NCLEX EMPHASIS ON PRACTICAL APPLICATION

As Condrey and Dempsey both emphasized, the new NCLEX exam places greater emphasis on applying practical experience in a case study format. At Columbus State, nursing students gain that hands-on experience in two ways.

The first is through their classroom studies, which include new simulation labs devoted to pediatrics and labor and delivery and where they can deepen their bedside care experience under the watchful eye of their professors. Thanks to the generosity of organizations like Columbus’ Ride for Miracles, those simulation labs include modern HAL® robotic “patients” that mimic lifelike movements, facial expressions and real-time responses — ranging from bleeding and vomiting to delivering a newborn.

Second, students then take their classroom knowledge into their clinical experiences in area hospitals, where mentoring and learning continue with practicing professionals.

“The work that I have had to do in the CSU nursing program is unlike any work that I have done before,” Sampson (pictured) explained. “The nursing program also brings plenty of enjoyment to me. Aside from the satisfaction of finally achieving mastery over a certain content area, the clinical rotations have allowed me to do things like observe surgeries and care for patients — which I never would have been able to do if not for the nursing program.” 

St. Francis-Emory’s Goree credits hospital-based experience like the kind Sampson and his fellow students are gaining as critical to their future training, career planning and job seeking.

“Clinical rotations and preceptorships offer students opportunities to apply the skills they’ve learned in the classroom and laboratory settings, and to gain confidence,” she said. “Clinical opportunities allow student nurses to better understand complex patient needs, the disease process and treatment plans. They allow students to practice their assessment skills and learn how to prioritize and think critically. This time also allows them to discover what type of nursing they would like to pursue and to build connections with potential future employers.”

Piedmont’s Burcham emphasized that a student’s clinical experience should be part of — but not the deciding factor for — selecting a professional nursing specialty.

“It’s absolutely okay to not declare a specialty right out of college,” he said. “I would argue that it may take time for new nurses to find their joy. You’ve made a large investment in yourself by earning a nursing degree. Take a moment, pause and make an informed decision about what you want that next chapter of your life to be — and how it’s going to build a foundation for you to go on from there. 

“It takes as many as 10,000 hours of experience to become an expert,” he continued. “At the end of that period, you may decide you want to become a nurse practitioner. Or a risk manager. Or you love the bedside and want to stay there. Whatever it is, you’re in a much-better position to make an informed decision then than you were a year out of school.” 

In addition to maximizing the NCLEX’s new case study testing approach, Condrey noted the school is employing other strategies to reinforce learning and student success. One of those includes breaking up complex courses and clinicals into multiple courses — including introducing a new two-part pharmacology course. The rationale again, Condrey said, is to provide students with more individualized instruction and direct mentoring while increasing the time to master vital nursing topics.