NIU School of Nursing grads rank high on state boards

Graduates from the NIU School of Nursing continue to turn in brilliant scores on the state board exams.

Scores in the 97th percentile on the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensure Examination (NCLEX) rank NIU as ninth among Illinois’ 72 nursing programs with graduates in the spring semester of 2003 and 156th among the nation’s 1,376 programs with spring semester graduates.

Comparatively, the pass rate is 88 percent for all nursing programs in Illinois and for all U.S. programs. Nursing school graduates must pass the comprehensive four-hour test to officially become registered nurses and practice anywhere in the country.

For NIU, the impressive spring 2003 results come on the heels of a 95th percentile performance by December 2002 graduates.

Marilyn Frank Stromborg, chair of the NIU School of Nursing, is not surprised.

The school’s stellar faculty is willing to go the extra mile for students, she said. Meanwhile, NIU has instituted a prep program for NCLEX, implemented stringent criteria for students’ grades in pre-requisite courses and raised the grade point average necessary to remain in the school.

“We continue to have more exceptional applicants for our programs than we can handle,” Stromborg said. “These NCLEX scores show us, however, that we are choosing our students well and providing them the quality of education they need to become excellent nurses. We at NIU are doing our best to combat the national nursing shortage by adding well-trained and well-rounded nurses to the workforce who are more likely to remain in the nursing profession.”

The School of Nursing, in the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences, offers an exciting, vibrant nursing program within a university setting. The nursing program has been in existence since 1959 and enjoys an outstanding reputation throughout the state of Illinois.

1-12-04