Looking at the past to change the future: a retrospective study of associate degree in nursing graduates' National Council Licensure Examination scores

This is a retrospective study comparing academic records and demographic data of students in an associate degree in nursing program who failed the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) with students who passed the NCLEX-RN. The sample was obtained from the population of graduates from courses spanning one academic calendar year. The study examined the relationship between multiple variables and success on the NCLEX-RN. The dependent variable was passing NCLEX-RN. Several independent variables include entering cumulative grade point average (GPA), entering nursing curriculum GPA, preadmission examination score, terminal grades in each of the five clinical nursing courses, National League for Nursing examination scores taken in various program courses, graduating GPA, and Health Education Systems, Inc. (HESI), examination score taken at the end of the program. Standardized test results and the pass/fail rate in the nursing courses taught in the curriculum appear to be the most significant variables identified in profiling the student most likely to fail NCLEX-RN. Males and minorities (Black, Hispanic, and Asian) had a lower pass rate than their White counterparts.     

Critical Role of Nutrition in Improving Quality of Care

The current era of healthcare delivery, with its focus on providing high‐quality, affordable care, presents many challenges to hospital‐based health professionals. The prevention and treatment of hospital malnutrition offer a tremendous opportunity to optimize the overall quality of patient care, improve clinical outcomes, and reduce costs. Unfortunately, malnutrition continues to go unrecognized and untreated in many hospitalized patients. This article represents a call to action from the interdisciplinary Alliance to Advance Patient Nutrition to highlight the critical role of nutrition intervention in clinical care and to suggest practical ways to promptly diagnose and treat malnourished patients and those at risk for malnutrition. We underscore the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to addressing malnutrition both in the hospital and in the acute posthospital phase. It is well recognized that malnutrition is associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Although data vary across studies, available evidence shows that early nutrition intervention can reduce complication rates, length of hospital stay, readmission rates, mortality, and cost of care. The key is to systematically identify patients who are malnourished or at risk and to promptly intervene. We present a novel care model to drive improvement, emphasizing the following 6 principles: (1) create an institutional culture where all stakeholders value nutrition, (2) redefine clinicians’ roles to include nutrition care, (3) recognize and diagnose all malnourished patients and those at risk, (4) rapidly implement comprehensive nutrition interventions and continued monitoring, (5) communicate nutrition care plans, and (6) develop a comprehensive discharge nutrition care and education plan.