Grambling's nursing program obtains 100 percent NCLEX pass rate two years in a row

Grambling State University once had one of the most competitive undergraduate nursing programs in the state, but low exam passing rates led to the closure of the program in 2015.

However, within the past few years, the program has been resurrected with astounding results.

The GSU School of Nursing is celebrating a 100% National Council Licensure Examination (for) Registered Nurses (NCLEX) pass rate for nursing graduates for the second consecutive year.

All 11 of the university's 2023 nursing graduates passed the NCLEX-RN exam as first-time test takers.

Meg Brown, associate dean and professor of nursing at GSU, said she was recruited out of retirement by then-associate professor Danita Potter because the school needed a chairperson for the undergraduate program.

"Well, I did retire young, [and] I did not have a good retirement plan for how I was going to spend my time, and I love a challenge," Brown said. "They needed a chairperson for the baccalaureate department."

Some of the barriers that kept students from receiving a passing 80%, Brown said, included departmental issues such as policies and testing.

"At that time, the exit exam was more of a determinant of whether a student could graduate rather than it being a predictor," Brown said. "The policies that were written... there was some leniency in some of the policies, and some students, I think, who would have been dismissed were allowed to continue in the program."

Since Brown's appointment as dean of the Bachelor of Nursing program, some of the changes added to the program include an entrance exam.

In the past, curriculum courses would be taught every semester, Brown said. Now, nursing students − known as cohorts − come in and move through. If they fail a course then they have to wait until that course is offered again.

"We also put in more frequent testing at the end of their curriculum to improve their testing skill," Brown said. "We also have live reviews at the end to connect all the dots."

In 2022, the university achieved a 100% pass rate for the first time in the history of the School of Nursing, as all 16 of its graduates passed the test.

Nursing school graduates in the United States and Canada are required to take the NCLEX, a competency exam, in order to become a registered nurse. The Louisiana Board of Nursing requires an 80% NCLEX-RN passage rate for first-time testers for full state approval.

Between 2012 and 2015, the historically Black university's nursing program was listed on the board's "conditional approval" list because it did not maintain an 80% passing rate by students taking the NCLEX exam, which is required to get a nursing license.

The old Bachelor of Nursing program was closed on Dec. 31, 2015, and Brown said the department began development the new program immediately after, with the Louisiana State Board of Nursing greenlighting the program in December 2017.

Students were admitted into the new program in fall of 2018, graduating in 2021. Brown said five out of seven students passed the NCLEX-RN as first time takers, giving the school 71.43%. However, the school needed an 80 percent to get full approval from the Louisiana State Board of Nursing.

"Until then, we looked at our program," Brown said. "We looked at our outcome. We made the adjustments based on the information we had available to us about our cohort, and after those adjustments, the 2022 had 100% and the 2023 class had a 100%. I also want to make sure that people understand that we were strategic in that even the first class that graduated, graduated from an accredited program."

The GSU School of Nursing regained its accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education on Jan. 25, 2021. Following the second class obtaining more than 80% on the NCLEX-RN, the nursing school received full state approval in 2022, prior, the school was under interim initial approval.

Brown said nursing is the most popular major at GSU, which means the School of Nursing has a large pool to choose from. Brown said unlike most other nursing schools, theirs does not have open enrollment.

"Our program is more competitive, so it's more selective in that students have to complete all of their prerequisites − 60 hours of prerequisites before they can apply to the professional component," Brown said. "That is beneficial to us because the students are not still trying to take gen ed [general education] courses while they're taking the nursing courses, and the student doesn't have to decide 'How am I going to take this gen ed course?,' because they don't know when their clinical or practicum is going to be. The way we have it set up, the nursing courses, once they get into the professional component, the didactic part is on Monday and Tuesday, which means Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and maybe even Saturday, they could be in clinical.

"That's determined by the availability of the agency. Keep in mind, if they still have gen. ed. courses to take, that would present a problem."

There are more than 400 registered students in the pre-nursing and 38 registered students in the professional nursing component, as of fall 2023.

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This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Here's how Grambling's nursing program obtained 100 percent pass rate