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For those student nurses who are about to graduate, their main
priority is to pass the NCLEX-RN examination. The practice of nursing
is regulated according to licensing authorities in each state
jurisdiction. Each jurisdiction must ensure that each nurse has
the minimum competency to practice nursing in their state. In order to
ensure such requirements, the National Council of State Boards of
Nurses, Inc.
(NCSBN) has developed a comprehensive examination
entitled, National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses
(NCLEX-RN). The NCLEX test plan occurs in several steps. The first step
is to conduct a practice analysis. This is used to collect data on the
practice of entry level nurses. By collecting this data the board can
design NCLEX test questions that will be applicable to the majority of
graduate nurses. For instance, it has been found that the
majority of new graduate nurses find work on medical/surgical units.
The majority of the new graduates surveyed also indicated their primary
responsibility was in the delivery of direct patient care. (1)
Therefore, questions regarding the care of patients on medical/surgical
units is pertinent and important for graduate nurses to know. Although
some graduate nurses will tell you that they had more questions on
psychiatric nursing or maternity nursing on the NCLEX, this is not the
norm. Six thousand or more newly licensed registered nurses are
asked about the frequency and priority of performing more than one
hundred and fifty care activities. These activities are analyzed in
relation to the impact on patient care, safety and client settings
where they are performed. It is in this framework that NCLEX test
questions are designed to be applicable in real world settings, thus
requiring graduate nurses to be knowledgeable of such practices. The
second step in the NCLEX test plan is to develop a method to test
behaviors regarding the content formed in step one. The NCLEX-RN, Test
Plan, provides a focused summary of the concepts to be tested. It
serves not only to delineate what content to cover and the method of
presenting the test questions but also serves to assist in developing a
study guide in preparing those who will take the test. The NCLEX
assesses the graduate nurse’s knowledge of required skills to practice
nursing safely and competently. Beliefs about people and nursing
underlie the NCLEX-RN test plan. People are finite beings with varying
capacities to function in society. (2) Each person is a unique and
special individual existing in a system that they exert some control
over, such as their beliefs, social systems, family systems, health
customs. It is in this underlying theory of each individuals beliefs
that the nursing process guides in the intervention to promote
psychological and physical wellness. Nursing is an art as much as
it is a science, founded on a scientific body of knowledge that has
been tested and proven effective in meeting the goals of each
individual. The cognitive learning domain is a integral part of the
NCLEX test plan. The use of Bloom’s taxonomy is the basis for writing
and coding items (Bloom,e tal.,1956: Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Since the practice of nursing requires application or higher levels of
cognitive ability, it becomes imperative to test graduate nurses
complex and abstract reasoning. The framework of Client Needs was
selected for the NCLEX due to its all encompassing body of nursing
knowledge that must be applied to successfully meet these needs. There
are four distinct categories of Client Needs that are integrated into
the exam, with two of the four categories subdivided to more adequately
cover all subject matter. The categories are as follows: A. Safe and Effective Care Environment 1. Management of Care 2. Safety and infection control B. Promotion and Maintenance C. Psychosocial Integrity D. Physiological Integrity 1. Basic Care and Comfort 2. Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies 3. Reduction of Risk Potential 4. Physiological Adaptation Integrated
concepts and processes are fundamental to the nursing practice and are
applied to the various and categories of client needs. These integrated concepts are as follows: A.
The nursing process- a scientific problem solving approach to client
care that includes, assessment, analysis, planning, implementation and
evaluation. B. Caring- interaction between the nurse and client
that provides for a nurturing, positive, and helpful environment
whereby the client feels special and important knowing that the
relationship that develops between themselves and the nurse will
provide the needed assistance in their achieving a higher level of
psychological and physical wellness. C. Communication and
Documentation- verbal and or nonverbal interactions between the nurse
and client, significant others and multidisciplinary health teams.
Validation either through written and or electronic entry which
reflects that what has been done is documented and is within the scope
of the nurses educational and licensure level as well as meeting the
policies of the hospital or other client care environment. D.
Teaching-Learning- facilitating the acquirement of further knowledge
which will lead to a more informed and skilled nurse with the
application of the newly learned material. The distribution of
content and the percentage of test questions assigned to each Client
Needs subcategory in the NCLEX test plan is based on the results of the
Report of Finding from the 2005 RN Practice
Learn how you can pass the NET the first time the the NET Study Guide. The
nursing entrance test study guide provides nurses the assistance they
need with the nursing entrance test. The nursing study guide helps
nurses. Visit http://www.thenetstudyguide.com for more information.
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