BSN NCLEX Success – Trust the Process
By Eddie Vargas, CAS Coordinator
As a life-long Lakers fan, I by no means support the Philadelphia 76ers (although I am an Eagles fan. Go Birds!), but I have always admired the phrase “trust the process,” a phrase coined by former 76ers GM Sam Hinkie. Hinkie’s phrase emphasizes putting faith into a strategic plan for achieving success. Like respect, faith and trust are not given to someone you don’t know. Faith and trust are important aspects to any relationship and must be developed with a combination of time and integrity. The more a relationship has of these, the better it is. Let us not forget Hinkie’s objective: success (more on this later).
Hand with pen over application form
“Trust the process” – Sam Hinkie, former 76ers GM
AUHS BSN students are tested; by the time they reach AUHS’ final nursing course, BSN students would have endured a program that possesses a range of 28-53 courses, labs, and clinical rotations combined—not to mention all within 3 years. All of the late nights spent studying, all of the assignments that needed attention, all of the classes that needed to be attended, all of the 12-hour clinical rotations, and all the exams that must be passed—all of these experiences prepare and lead our students to their final nursing course N460: Transition to Professional Practice.
N460 is a course designed to challenge our students’ knowledge, and their ability to apply that knowledge through examinations, with one end goal: pass the NCLEX. N460 is a course of examinations, in fact the course contains a minimum of 26 examinations, 16 of which must be passed with a minimum score of 80%. Going through a course with 26 exams crammed into a quarter (of 10 weeks) can be a humbling experience, another humbling aspect is that it is extremely rare for a student to pass each of these exams with the required benchmark on their first attempt. It is a humbling experience when you’re told you’re not good enough; but it is this humility that is needed to be successful, to become an even better version of yourself.
“Pride is your greatest enemy; humility is your greatest friend.” – John R.W. Stott
N460 has been a key feature in AUHS’ curriculum for quite some time now, but the university is starting to see a trend of compounding success on its NCLEX pass rates (all pass rates are per NCSBN):
- 2021-2022 First-Time NCLEX Pass Rate: 75.73%
- 2022-2023 First-Time NCLEX Pass Rate: 84.34%
- 2023-2024 First-Time NCLEX Pass Rate: 90.41%
N460 has existed for a number of years and has gone through some minor changes, but the rationale behind the course has remained the same. As I’ve mentioned in a previous article regarding this topic, we always look to improve the course to be a better resource for our students. Our students are provided with great resources in terms of preparation, but I genuinely believe the key to this new-found success is building strong relationships with them.
It may sound far-fetched, but building a strong relationship with our students is key in terms of their NCLEX success. During senior orientation, and all throughout the final quarter of BSN, we preach to our students the importance of 1) Putting 1000% effort in going above and beyond, 2) Sacrificing their social life, and 3) taking the NCLEX within three weeks of course completion. We require them to complete a minimum of 50 NCLEX-style questions and rationales per day, every day for over 10 weeks, (that is on top of the course requirements, live reviews, optional review sessions and the aforementioned 26 exams). It is a lot to ask and a lot to require.
The students may be so confident in their abilities and accomplishments that they may decide not to study, or even not to take the course too seriously. In my experience the more you know someone, the more you can understand them, and the more you understand them, the more you can trust them, and the more you can trust them, the more you’re willing to listen to their advice (and vice versa). Over the past two cohorts of graduates (Cohort 29 and Cohort 30 – which are both included in our 2023-2024 pass rates), 81% of the students attempted the NCLEX within a month of graduating (most within three weeks), and 100% of those students who did so passed the NCLEX on their first attempt – remember this is something we drill into our students, and something we’ve found as not a practice from cohorts. Additionally, our pass rate between those two cohorts is currently 94%!
We are not looking to reinvent the wheel—we have a “process.” It is strategic, and it is proven. We simply need our students to “trust the process;” we must pull the absolute best out of our students, and we need them to realize that for themselves too! They have made it this far, they possess the knowledge, and experience to be successful, but they too must bring out their best and trust the process—this all happens through strong relationships.