Florida A&M University’s School of Nursing has been placed on probation by the state Board of Nursing following two consecutive years of low passing rates on license exams.
Interim FAMU Provost Rodner Wright said the state notice does not affect nursing students graduating this spring, and it does not affect the school’s accreditation by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, or ACEN.
“Florida A&M University’s rates have not equaled or exceeded the required passage rate two consecutive calendar years,” the state board wrote in its notice in February.
The program must remain on probationary status until it achieves a graduate passage rate that equals or exceeds the required passage rate for any one calendar year. Seventeen other nursing programs in Florida also were placed on probation for low passage rates.
Wright said nursing Dean Henry Talley has developed an action plan to better prepare first-time test takers. FAMU’s goal is to show improvement this year and get off probation.
According to the letter, an approved nursing program must achieve a graduate passage rate for first-time test takers, which is not more than 10 percentage points lower than the average passage rate during the same calendar year for graduates of comparable degree programs who are first-time test takers on the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensing Examination.
FAMU’s average graduate passage rate for first-time test takers for 2016 was 75.61 percent, while the average graduate rate was 87.80 percent.
FAMU’s passage rate for 2017 was 63.51 percent, while the average graduation rate was 90.04 percent. read more
