For-Profit Nursing Grads More Likely to Fail Licensing Exams

A study published in the Journal of Nursing Regulation found graduates of for-profit nursing programs are more likely to fail their licensing examinations on the first try versus peers who went to public or not-for-profit schools, reports Modern Healthcare . Analysis of over 13,000 nursing school degree programs across 41 states and the District of Columbia calculated that students who graduated from for-profit nursing school programs between 2011 and 2015 had a higher average fail rate the first time they took the National Council Licensure Examination compared with students from public school programs. Not-for-profit nursing school grads also had lower rates of passing the licensing exam the first time compared with public-school nursing students. This gap was much wider among for-profit graduates, whose average first-time pass rate was 68 percent across all degrees. The average pass rates among not-for-profits were 84 percent and 88 percent among students in public nursing programs. "I think that the policies that nursing leaders implement should not be targeting for-profits necessarily — they should be applied to any kind of nursing program — but there's clearly some very low performers that are slipping through the cracks," notes George Washington University Professor Patricia Pittman.