By John Willie, LC Communications
PINEVILLE – For the second year in a row, the class of Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) graduates who sat the NCLEX professional nursing licensure exam in Louisiana have passed it with a 100 percent pass rate.
In December 2010 there were 17 graduates from the first cohort to complete the program. All of the 15 graduates from this year’s December 2011 second cohort who sat the exam in Louisiana have been successful.
The ABSN program commenced in the fall of 2009. It offers an accelerated route for students with a prior bachelors degree who want to transition into a second career in nursing.
Kimberly Sharp, Ph.D., dean of the Division of Nursing and Allied Health, expressed her delight with the latest results.
“It is a wonderful result for the hard-working students and our faculty and staff team,” Sharp affirmed, “especially given the fact that most of these students – 60 percent – passed the national examination after only taking the minimum of 75 questions. We are gaining a reputation as the place to come to pass an ABSN program with flying colors.”
The NCLEX exam is a computer adaptive test with a minimum of 75 and a maximum of 265 questions, depending on the ability of the students in taking the test. The fact that graduates of the LC nursing program are now consistently passing the professional qualifying exam with the majority of the students only requiring the minimum of 75 exam questions shows that the protocols for admission, content benchmarks and remediation are meeting required programmatic outcomes.
The Division of Nursing is currently recruiting for the next class, which will commence the accelerated nursing program in August 2012.
For more information about the ABSN Program at LC contact Program Specialist Myra McKay atabsn@lacollege.edu and for general information about nursing contact Elizabeth Walker atewalker@lacollege.edu in LC Division of Nursing at 318.487.7127.