| Student success on the National Council Licensing Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) is an issue of great importance for nurse educators, who seek strategies to identify at-risk students early in the educational process with the intention of identifying knowledge gaps and providing remediation to improve student success on the NCLEX-RN. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Elsevier/HESI™ specialty exams on student performance for those preparing for the NCLEX-RN.;The primary objective was to determine whether scores on the specialty exams predicted student success on the Elsevier HESI™ Exit Exam (E 2) and the NCLEX-RN. The relationship between the specialty exams and the E2 was explored. Scores from a random stratified sample of 63 schools, including 20 schools using predictive exit exams alone (1,458 students) and 43 schools using both specialty and exit exams (2,332 students) were analyzed. The nursing students were enrolled in 26 Bachelor of Science in Nursing programs (BSN), 31 Associate Degree in Nursing programs (ADN), and 6 Diploma programs across the United States.;Students testing with one or more HESI™ specialty exams throughout their curriculum had significantly higher scores on their E2 exams, M = 865.7 (CI: 861.3 - 870.1) versus E2 exams only, M = 837.3 (CI: 831.0 - 843.7), t(3790) = 7.19, p < .0001. The Odds ratio demonstrated that the critical care, pediatric, and medical/surgical specialty exams were the best predictors of NCLEX-RN success.;Specialty exam scores were significantly predictive of end-of-program exit exam success, a finding that can guide educational policy in nursing programs by providing a strategy to identify at-risk students early in the educational process and assure their success on the NCLEX-RN. In this national sample, early identification of content-specific knowledge gaps may enable implementation of remediation strategies earlier in the student’s educational program to improve passage rates on the licensure exam.;Key Words: Standardized Specialty Exams, HESI Exit Exam, NCLEX-RN success. |
