<p>Students who graduated from the Florida State University School of Nursing with a BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) degree achieved a 97.83 percent pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examinations (NCLEX-RN), the state licensure exam to become a registered nurse.</p>
<p>The pass rate, which was reported in the 2006 National Council of State Boards of Nursing second quarter report, is even higher than the School's first quarter pass rate of 95.5 percent. Both percentages are also above the national average pass rate for the NCLEX-RN, which according to Eric King, director or communication, marketing and alumni affairs for the School of Nursing, is about 87 percent.</p>
<p>"We feel very good about (the pass rate)," said King. "We're coming back fairly strong. It's been a while. We started to slide (until) these last two or three semesters. We've always been above the national average, but these are exceptional scores for nursing."</p>
<p>King said he believed that the pass rate was achieved in various ways, including the implementation of the HESI (Health Education Systems Incorporated) exam, which incoming nursing students must take in order to prepare them for the NCLEX-RN exam and to help to evaluate their preparedness.</p>
<p>"One, it puts them through the process, and, two, there are success indicators inherent in the testing," explained King. "It's just an overall focusing on the exam."</p>
<p>According to King, it's important for people to understand that a student can graduate with a BSN, but cannot actually practice as a registered nurse until they pass the certification exam. He continued to explain that the School of Nursing students had a lot to do with the program's achievements.</p>
<p>"Nursing is an extremely challenging program," said King. "Our incoming first term students (had) an average GPA of 3.78. (These) are pretty good students entering a challenging program."</p>
<p>According to King, the School of Nursing faculty also had a large impact towards the 97 percent passage rate.</p>
<p>"The thing that strikes me is the faculty and how hard they work with these students to ensure their success," continued King. "It's just a really good faculty."</p>
<p>For more information about the School of Nursing, visit their Web site at <a href="http://www.fsu.edu/%7Enursing/%5B/url%5D">www.fsu.edu/~nursing/</a>.</p>
<p>For the article see: <a href="http://www.fsunews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/08/28/44f22c5b39bd5%5B/url%5D">http://www.fsunews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/08/28/44f22c5b39bd5</a></p>
<p>The US-educated RN national average passage rate is: 83.8% per the July 2006 report. The internationally-educated RN passage rate on this exam is: 47.9%</p>