The Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) Program at Amarillo College is pleased to report that 95 percent of its program graduates passed the national licensure exam on their initial attempt between October 2014 and March 2015. The December 2014 program graduates performed exceptionally well.

Should the May cohort achieve a first-time pass rate anywhere close to that exemplary mark—such an expectation at present is high—the ADN Program will return to its historically solid footing in the shortest possible timeframe.

The Texas Board of Nursing in January 2015 placed AC’s ADN Program on Full Approval with Warning status following back-to-back years in which AC’s annual first-time pass rates on the NCLEX-RN exam fell below the board’s 80-percent requirement. AC’s annual first-time pass rates in 2013 and 2014 were 79.02 percent and 77.6 percent, respectively.

The Texas Board of Nursing requires programs to achieve a minimum 80-percent first-time annual pass rate to maintain Full Approval status, and it extends commendations to programs in which 90 percent of candidates pass the first time they take the NCLEX-RN. In 2010, AC’s ADN Program received such a commendation from the Board.

Beginning with revised, more-stringent admission policies, the ADN Program was proactive in instituting smaller classes and a reduction in student-to-faculty ratios, requiring remediation in each course, raising the passing-with-a-C standard from 70 percent to 75 percent, and enhancing teaching practices in classrooms and clinicals.

These strategies are swiftly paying dividends as reflected in the December 2014 cohort’s superlative performance. Once the May cohort’s results are tallied and collated by the Texas Board of Nursing, the ADN Program will know whether its winter and spring RN candidates have combined to exceed the Board’s 80-percent annual mandate. If so, AC will return to Full Approval; the warning would be immediately rescinded.

“We are highly optimistic at this point, but we also realize that we are only half way there,” said Dr. Richard Pullen, who this academic year became AC’s dean of nursing. “The strategies we implemented these past few months clearly are paying dividends, eclipsing even our highest expectations, but we have plenty of work yet to do.

“Being placed on Full Approval with Warning was a wake-up call for us, and I am not going to say that we didn’t need it,” Pullen said. “But I will say that no matter what our immediate or future outcomes are, we will not be caught resting on our laurels anytime soon. Our faculty is exceptional, they have risen to the challenge, which is exactly what our students expect and deserve. We are looking ahead because our future is bright.” 

March 26, 2015