Students Left in Limbo After Nursing School Violates High-stakes Testing Policy

LAS VEGAS – Students in the nursing program at Las Vegas College are in limbo after their institution was discovered to have violated Nevada State Board of Nursing policy.

Peter Mikhail, the president of Las Vegas College, stated on Friday that high-stakes examinations were being administered in the nursing program. The Board of Nursing advised us that this practice was prohibited, and we discontinued it immediately.

The term “High stakes testing” refers to a procedure in which proctored exams are significantly weighted toward the completion of a course.

In 2012, the practice was outlawed in Nevada when the Board added language to the existing regulation stating, “A program of nursing must not use a standardized examination for determining the successful completion of the program.”

In many other states, the method is commonly utilized to boost first-time NCLEX test pass rates. The NCLEX is the exam nursing students take to get licensed, however it is not required to graduate from a nursing program.

Mikhail stated that he was ignorant of “high stakes testing” at the school.

Mikhail stated, “I didn’t know why it had been put in place,” “We are attempting to rectify the situation. We place a high priority on the student experience. We want to ensure that everyone is successful and satisfied.”

According to Mikhail, students at Las Vegas College can retake a failed course for free. According to him, this school policy has always existed.

13 Action News interviewed students who want anonymity. One student stated that she would have passed her most recent course if not for the proctored exam.

She stated the following:

“As students, we lost not just money but also time and all the effort we believed would pay off. This has also had a negative effect on the emotional and mental health of our loved ones. Las Vegas College instructs nursing students to advocate for patients, but does not advocate for its own students. What they did was unethical, and I feel robbed because I could have advanced and passed the program.”

Mikhail reported that Las Vegas College has begun an internal investigation to determine why and how long “high stakes testing” has been implemented in the nursing program.

“Here we are. We are pursuing a settlement “said Mikhail. “We are still very committed to the success of all our students, and any, anything that we can do to help them become successful nurses, or successful, anything that we offer here.”

The Nevada State Nursing Board has no comment on the incident.

Credits: KTNV