To become a registered nurse, graduates of nursing schools must pass the National Council Licensure Examination. State regulations in Louisiana require that an accredited nursing program maintain a licensure examination passage rate of 80 percent or above for first-time test takers. For the past three years students at the nursing school at historically Black Grambling State University have not passed the examination at a rate exceeding the threshold. As a result, the Louisiana State Board of Nursing threatened to close the program.
But an agreement between the State Board of Nursing and the university that will allow the nursing school to continue operating. The state board noted that due to measures implemented at Grambling, the pass rate for the licensure examination increased from 64 percent in 2013 to 75 percent in 2014. Therefore, it has granted the nursing school an extension to further improve the passage rate to meet the state standards.
Among the measures taken by Grambling is a mentoring program for nursing students and workshops to prepare nursing students for the licensure examination. The curriculum has been altered to focus more on materials that are included on the examination.
