Perceptions of Graduates From a Canadian Bachelor of Nursing Program: Preparing for the Registered Nurse National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN)

Abstract

As a self-regulated profession, nursing in Canada is based on legislation enacted by provincial and territorial associations with the purpose of protecting the public from harm (Marquis & Trajan, 2012). Since 1970, most Canadian jurisdictions required completion of national examinations to obtain professional licensure (Elliott, Rutty, & Villeneuve, 2013; Kovner & Spetz, 2013). In 2011 the Canadian Council of Registered Nurse Regulators (CCRNR) announced the Canadian Registered Nurse Examination (CRNE) would be replaced with the National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN) developed in the United States as the new requirement for registered nurses (RN) to enter practice in Canada. The implementation of the NCLEX-RN in 2015 stimulated extensive dialogue among nursing stakeholders in Canada. Preliminary exam results indicated that the first cohort of Canadian NCLEX-RN writers had lower scores than both previous CRNE results and the NCLEX-RN pass rates of writers in the United States (Hobbins & Bradley, 2013; PennellSebekos, 2015). A key factor impacting NCLEX-RN success is strategies used by candidates to prepare for the exam. This paper describes research undertaken to investigate the perceptions of the first cohort of graduates from an Atlantic Canada bachelor of nursing (BN) program about their NCLEX-RN preparations. The investigation focused on strategies employed by participants prior to, and after program completion, and how these preparations aligned with their experiences in writing the exam.