i am a nurse now and yes i had to take the HESI and pass with a high score before i could take the boards. It worked for me because passing the boards was a breeze.
Nursing school is difficult but they train you to some extent and the rest is learned on the job.

Maybe i could go to med school but the profession of nursing is way different from being a doctor and wouldn't trade what I do for anything else, on most days.

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In order to claim that, - you need to show that those students did EVERYTHING THEY COULD to pass the exam.

I seriously doubt there is one student in the whole USA, from the kindergarten to the highest level of educations who can claim that, - and who did not graduate with honors.

I did a year of pre-med. The hard sciences have an average grade of 75 in a course that is properly pitched. The distribution follows a classic bell curve. An 80% fail rate is a sign that the school failed, not the students.

I can't tell you what it cost me to get a 3.2 GPA in pre-med, but I am talking 14-hour days of classes and study, and there were still days I wondered if this time I wasn't going to just flunk.

From the looks of it, the people who passed that test should be heading for med school, not a career in nursing (but they didn't take the right prereqs).

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True, and you'd think that after taking the kids money for 5 years they'd have the good grace to provide the remedial course for free. Can you imagine anyone next year enrolling in the program if they have another choice?

Bizarre. It?s obviously not in the University?s interest to put egg on its own face, which it did with great precision, by demonstrating that a majority of would-be nursing graduates were not prepared. If the students achieved satisfactory results in their coursework, they should have been equally prepared to meet nationally accepted standards.

Wait you have to pass a test to graduate? Who woulda thunk it?

Saint Peter?s College denies diplomas to four-fifths of its nursing students

Published: Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 3:03 AM
By Kate Kowsh/The Jersey Journal


Saint Peter's College nursing students, from left, John Payumo, 23, Andrew Cordova, 24, Mhorena Cortez, 22, Julianah Alli, 23, AudreyWekesa, 23, and Jennifer Evans, 23, hold the 2011 commencement roster that lists their names.

They donned caps and gowns and crossed the stage of the PNC Arts Center on May 23 as part of the Saint Peter?s College?s commencement ceremony. But most of the college?s nursing students apparently didn?t receive diplomas.

According to students, some 32 out of 40 students in the college?s four-year nursing program failed to pass a final assessment exam that is a supposed to gauge the test-taker?s ability to the pass the National Council of State Boards? Licensure Examination (NCLEX), an exam nurses must pass to be licensed.

Some of the students argue the final assessment exam the Health Education Systems Inc. (HESI) is an arbitrary test that shouldn?t prevent them from graduating. They say the school did a poor job preparing them for the test and arbitrarily hiked the grade needed to pass the exam.

They also say they went into debt to spend four years or more at Saint Peter?s and now can?t get a job in their chosen profession or start paying back their loans.

?Until now, my father has no idea that I didn?t graduate,? John Payumo, 23, a fourth-year nursing student, told The Jersey Journal, adding that he?s accrued more than $20,000 in student loan debt.

He says he learned five days before the commencement ceremony that he wouldn?t receive a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing because his score on the HESI was eight points shy of the passing mark.

?I feel like a guinea pig, just so they (college officials) can improve their program,? said Payumo.

Nursing student Jennifer Evans, 23, who has a 3.2 percent grade point average, also failed the HESI. She believes the college set a higher passing grade for the HESI than was necessary.

?I never thought I?d end up in this situation, going through five years of college and ending up with nothing,? she said. ?I?m not asking for handouts. I?m not asking for favors, just meet me halfway.?

Sarah Malinowski, the spokeswoman for Saint Peter?s College, said the college is well aware of student complaints. She declined to say how many nursing students failed the HESI, but says all were given adequate support to pass the test.

The complaints ?disregard the fact that substantial aid was provided to the students at no additional cost to them to assist them . . . in achieving their goal of successfully graduating from the program,? she stated in an email.

At this point, students say that in order to retake the HESI and obtain their degrees, the college has told them they have to pay $300 to retake the medical-surgery course in the upcoming semester a class they?ve already taken and passed.

Malinowski declined to comment on this information.
The students have filed a complaint with the New Jersey Board of Nursing.

?While state law does not currently prohibit schools from requiring students to pass an exit exam before graduating and taking the NCLEX, the board?s education committee is currently gathering information about these concerns,? a spokesman for the board told The Jersey Journal.

?The full board expects to review this information and make a decision that may affect new policy at an upcoming meeting,? he said.