Everything Nurses Need to Know About the NCLEX Exam

United States has one of the most complex, expensive and advanced healthcare systems in the world. The expansion of medicine and technology, US healthcare system is advancing at a rapid pace. With the current interdisciplinary system of medicine, nurses play a pivotal role in coordinating various elements of healthcare in order to ensure patient safety and effective care delivery. Three or four years of nursing school education prepare the nurses for such a Herculean task. However, graduating from a nursing program alone is not sufficient for substantiating the strength and ability of an individual to perform the complex task of nursing. A standardized licensure exam is vital in ensuring the quality standards of nursing professionals and thereby safeguarding the public interest.

National Council for state boards of nursing (NCSBN) is a nonprofit organization in United States with all of the board of nursings as its members. The mission of NCSBN is to provide education, service and research through collaborative leadership to promote evidence-based regulatory excellence for patient safety and public protection (NCSBN, 2010). This regulatory body is controlled by an elected Board of Directors who are charged with overseeing implementation of policy and strategic plan based on the priority objectives of the profession. This organization is at the forefront of proposing and adapting regulatory changes like nurse licensure compact (NLC), which allow a nurse to have one multistate license with the ability to practice in the home state and other compact states. They are instrumental in educating key stakeholders in government and other entities and advocating for advancement of nursing profession.

NCSBN started conducting National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) from 1994 in United States and 2015 in Canada as a standardized testing system for assessing the preparedness of nurses for entry-level nursing practice. This exam is administered for students who successfully complete an accredited nursing program. The standardization of the testing provides a level playing field for graduates of different programs and also to assess the preparedness for working in different capacities as an entry-level nurse.

It is important to remember that these exams do not test an individual’s subjective knowledge. They are designed for assessing the preparedness of the nurses to function independently in the current practice setting. This makes NCLEX exam different and unique than other examinations that the candidates experienced as part of their nursing curriculum.

The questions of NCLEX exam are standardized based on the current trends in medicine, nursing and public policy. It is more of an aptitude testing based on real-world scenarios than content oriented subject matter testing from the nursing school. The scenarios test candidate’s ability to adapt, integrate, apply and synthesize data gathered from medical and nursing science, interpersonal communication and the environment.

Since nursing profession is rooted in patient advocacy and critical thinking, the student will be asked to demonstrate these essential qualities through a variety of standardized testing techniques. An entry-level nurse’s ability to navigate such scenarios exemplify their preparedness for handling the real nursing tasks.

In preparing for NCLEX exam, nursing students and graduates should keep this essential information in mind as it will help them to navigate the exam preparation huddles. There are thousands of different types of books and other resources available for NCLEX preparation. There is no such thing called ‘best NCLEX study material’. All available NCLEX study materials are complementary to a person’s understanding of basic nursing sciences and clinical conditions. NCLEX nursing practice tests questions provide an opportunity for the individuals to test their knowledge and scenarios similar to what appears in NCLEX exam.

NCLEX RN reviews should focus on brushing up didactic knowledge combined with solving NCLEX practice exam questions. These two components are complementary to each other and cannot be separated. Any candidate who is trying to either study the didactic material or simply doing the questions alone may not succeed in their endeavor. A student should have solid understanding of basic human sciences and apply that knowledge through the NCLEX practice questions.

It is also important for the candidates to remember that the standardized exam administered by NCSBN is time bounded and therefore, students should be able to complete the exam in a timely manner. While solving NCLEX practice exams, the students should focus on the timeliness of their performance along with scoring in different areas of testing.

A good NCLEX RN review should provide individualized feedback on the content preparation and individual attributes such as time management and other performance measures.

APRN WORLD® helps individual candidates to focus on practicing NCLEX practice exam questions on a computer-based platform, where a variety of performance measures are being monitored.

Students will get individualized feedback based on their performance on content areas and individual attributes like time management, exam techniques based on Bloom’s taxonomy and so forth. This information is helpful for individuals to understand not only their preparedness but also the overall intent of the exam. Exam anxiety can be greatly reduced through such information as it points out areas for improvement for individual candidates.

For academicians who utilize the resources of APRN WORLD®, this detailed information help them to channelize their resources for individual candidates on specific areas of concern. APRN WORLD® provides an expansive array of tools for student success at a considerably lower cost that is affordable for individual candidates and institutions that are already resource constrained.