As a nursing educator, I can't say for sure what West Virginia's problem is, but I think it is likely poor educational standards in the public schools followed by insufficient rigor in the nursing programs. Nurse educators don't have to have any training to teach. No college professor does, regardless of discipline.

I don't think this is a nationwide trend, necessarily. All nursing programs are under pressure by administration and local employers to maintain retention of students and keep the graduation rate up, in the hopes the grads will pass Boards and be eligible to work. However, this usually has the reverse effect.

North Carolina requires an 85% pass rate for programs in the state or your program is placed on probationary status and they are all in your face to fix the problem. North Carolina A&T and UNCG are going through this right now, tho both programs have their problems about licked.

I'm sure the Board of Nursing in West Virginia are looking closely at the problem: at least I hope so.

reading this I just had a thoguht. Yes I think I read that nationally exam pass rate has declined (although I need to look this up in a reliable spot). anyway there are recently more nurse from overseas and as english as a second language. Due to nursing shortage we are recriting nurses from east asia, south africa, etc. i know 4 great nurses that english is their second language, one a lifeflight nurse from south africa. Well even though they had been experienced nurses for some time in their own countries they had to go through a program and take state boards. This would be interesting to find out in WV the percentage of overseas nurses are taking the exam. I think we need to be more careful with wording on exams as in English one word can mean 10 totally different things. It is a very difficult language. Of course this is just one small thing, but could have a partial effect on passing rates.

kat88 said:

I think yes your minor studies will help you on the exam, especially english classes and writting. Unfortuately the exam is written by people who grew up in the US, all the customs and words that go along with that. YOU are very deserving and will be a great assest to your employer, no many people who grew up in the US are multi-lingual. Remember the students with what you call great knowledge are doing this in their first language and probably in the culture they grew up in. For you to be able to pass the classes means you are very good at it. i can not imagen trying to take nursing say in spanish or another language. To be humble is so often overlooked here, but a wonderful and refreshing quality. Plus you sound determined it is what you want to do. Do not give up, even if you have to take the exam over. Read books for fun or play a computer game called bookworm to learn the words.

oh,,with my minor subjects.. i cant cope up well with taxation and statistics.well,i hate numbers! i hate math! hehe,,i think thats the reason why i cant relate with this two subjects of mine..hehe,,thanks again. =)

cswanson: I think you do young people a disservice by assuming they are not ready for the rigors of nursing school straight out of high school. Many of my nursing students are young men and women in their early 20's, a few in their late teens (19). Some do well, others do not. The reasons are the same for the older than average students: insufficient preparation, insufficient commitment, poor critical thinking ability, poor test taking ability, etc. Age does not seem to make a difference in the success of the student, from my observations. I would also add that in our area many older students are attracted to the profession because of the money, especially in the wake of the imploding furniture industry here in western North Carolina. I think that's really reflective of a national trend: nursing is seen as stable, secure employment with good benefits and good wages.

I don't think it has anything to do with age. I think the professors are not teaching the nursing students what they need to know. They need to be teaching application and critical thinking, instead of pure memorization. You can be a book full of facts, but what good does it do if you don't know what to do with the information you know?