Curriculum content must be mastered to be licensed.
Objective
Specialty
Nursing students will achieve mastery of a specialty content area (med-surg, pediatrics, obstetrics, psych-mental health, community, fundamentals, health assessment) by the end of each of their specialty courses.
Indicator
Standardized HESI Specialty Examinations
Health Education Systems, Inc. (HESI) is a software-based testing company that produces standardized and customized tests for nursing students. Each student is administered the chosen specialty exam.
Criterion
Score Of 850 By At Least 85%
85% will achieve set score of 850 or more.
Finding
HESI Scores
Attached table indicates the specialty area, cohort number, number of students enrolled in cohort, the number of students achieving a score of 850 of more, and percent of students achieving a score of 850 or more. Percentages ranged from 12.5% to 76.19%. Students did not achieve 850 or more in any specialty. Thus, the goal was not achieved.
Action
Change Standardized Exam And Criterion
We voted to changed from HESI to ATI in summer of 2013. ATI has better interpretation of tests in many ways. They break the test analysis down into the same parts as are tested on NCLEX. They also correlate the obtained scores with the chances of passing NCLEX. Therefore, we will be able to get a better handle on where our students are at. Also, the score of 850 on the HESI was a national mean, which indicates that approximately 50% of the national nursing students scored better than 50%. Our goal was 85%, which was probably unrealistic. The goal should have been more like 60-70%.
Goal
Mastery Of Curriculum Content
Master of the basic curriculum is required for licensure.
Objective
Mastery By Graduation
Nursing students will achieve mastery of all nursing content just prior to graduation.
Indicator
Standardized HESI Exit Examination
The HESI Exit Exam is a standardized test that nursing students may be required to pass before graduating. It is a comprehensive nurse exam that tests the student' overall knowledge in key areas of the nursing curriculum. In many ways, the HESI Exit Exam is similar to the National Council of Licensing Examination for the Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN) and, therefore, performance on the HESI Exit Exam is considered to be a good predictor of a student's readiness for the licensing exam. http://voices.yahoo.com/the-hesi-test-prepare-it-3299226.html
Criterion
Score Of At Least 850 By 85% Students
85% will achieve set score of 850 or more.
Finding
Table Of HESI Exit Scores For Cohort I And 2
The attached table shows that cohort 1 had 57.14% of students scoring greater than 850 and cohort 2 had 72.72% scoring greater than 850. Thus, neither cohort met the goal of 85% scoring greater than 850.
Goal not met
Action
Changing Instrument And Criterion
Changing to ATI as ATI has more to offer in a package form and the HESI and ATI specialty and exit tests are similar in the literature. We are also changing the criterion to a lower level than 85% above the mean. If the mean is close to the median, which it most likely is in a normed sample, then 50% of the nation's nurses are scoring above 850, not 85. 85% was a high criterion and probably unrealistic. The criterion should be closer to 70%. Obtaining an 850 does not necessarily correlate with passing the NCLEX. The ATI has better score interpretations in terms of the NCLEX.