Canadian and American nurses will now be
writing the same exam for entry into the nursing profession. The NCLEX-RN will
be measuring the preparedness of nursing students in both Canada and the United
States. While some nurses are excited about being certified under the broader
umbrella, others are worried that the American testing format may jeopardize
their potential for approval.
One of the early fears was that the test would
be administered in an imperial format. This, of course, would be completely unfair
for Canadian nursing students. Rest assured, the Canadian format of the
NCLEX-RN uses metric measurements.
Another fear of Canadian students is that the
test will be biased towards a private healthcare model. Canadian nursing boards
promise this will not be the case.
Bill Clarke, from the College of Nurses of
Ontario, stresses that the test is in place to evaluate the skill, knowledge
and judgment of Canadian nurses. "This exam does not test the writer's
knowledge of different legislation or policies, cultural values or health care
environments. It only tests what is required for entry-level nursing practice,
and helps ensure that applicants will be able to provide safe care as they
begin their nursing careers."
The most obvious change will be the exam question
format. The NCLEX uses a computer-adapted test that varies questions depending
on the answers given during an initial question period. This change does not
favour an American education.
Some nursing schools in Canada have started to workshop NCLEX exam
taking scenarios that mimic the adaptive test format. Many nurses are looking
to private education training like the classes being taught by PRIMED
Educational Associates. PRIMED offers NCLEX review sessions that focus on
specific material while providing students with valuable test-taking strategies
for computer-adapted testing.
The first round of tests is this January. It will be interesting to
see how Canadian students fair against their American counterparts. There are
already plans in place to audit all of the Canadian nurses that were tested in
2015 at the end of the year. This process, along with other checks and
balances, will help Canadian nurses and educators gauge the effectiveness of
the exam.
