One Major Challenge With Nursing In Canada

As many of you know, one of the things with the NCLEX exam is that it is constantly changing. How it was graded, scored, computed ten years ago is not the same as how it is today.This is perfectly normal because it has to constantly adapt to the times, changes in healthcare, changes in nursing practice and so forth. Along with this as you already know the NCLEX was not also always tested on a computer as it is today.

On February 2, 1994, is when the last NCLEX-RN via paper and pencil was administered. Prior to that time, the exam could accommodate hundreds and hundreds of nurses in one area but with limited times and locations. So imagine having fewer dates to prepare for the exam as well as driving longer distances to take the exam. This could be challenging especially if you lived in a rural area. In addition, because there were no computers your test results from the exam were not as quickly available. You think you're anxiously stressing over waiting a few days for your results, trying waiting weeks if not MONTHS to get your results!

We should thank our lucky stars! So the NCLEX is constantly changing which means that nursing schools have to continuously raise the bar and provide rigorous yet well prepared programs for students to not only just get their degree but also PASS their exam.

Recently the passing standard for the NCLEX also changed again. According to the National Council State of Board Nursing they state on their website saying, 

"The NCSBN Board of Directors voted in December 2012 to raise the passing standard for the NCLEX-RN. The passing standard was revised from -0.16 logits to 0.00 logit. This passing standard was implemented April 1, 2013, in conjunction with the 2013 NCLEX-RN Test Plan. The new passing standard will remain in effect through March 31, 2016."  

Yikes!

And I can guarantee you right now that it's not going to change to go LOWER in 2016. The standard will either remain the same or go up. It always does and it always will. But now one of those changes is largely affecting one of bordering neighbors of the United States: Canadian Nurses.

One of the upsetting news is that now our fellow Canadian friends are failing the NCLEX exam at alarming average rate of 20%! That's a lot! And let's talk about why that is. Well unfortunately starting January 1, 2015, both the NCLEX-RN and the NCLEX-PN exam were changed to the U.S. NCLEX-RN exam for Canada nurses too. The NCSBN states,

"The same NCLEX-RN exam will be used for Canadian and U.S. entry to nursing practice in 2015.”  

So why are some of these nurses failing? It's because many of the nurses are attesting that the healthcare system in Canada is not the same as the healthcare system in America so therefore it is not aligning with what their usual practices are to what they are being tested with now. However one of the changes the board has made to try to make the exam more adaptable to our Canadian nurse is also making the NCLEX exam available in French too.

For those of you who don't know over 85% of Canadians have working knowledge of English while 30.1% have a working knowledge of French. Under the Official Languages Act of 1969, both English and French have official federal status throughout Canada, in respect of all government services, including the courts and all federal legislation is enacted bilingually. 

 

So they did try to make the exam more convenient for Canadian nurses by having the language also available in French but frankly speaking that still doesn't change what's actually being tested.   Some of the differences with our healthcare system vs Canada's healthcare system are

• We have the Affordable HealthCare Act also known as Obamacare while Canada has the Canada Health Act. Although our healthcare allows for more people to get health insurance, Canada's healthcare doesn't limit where and who they can receive treatment by in Canada like our system.
• Also statistically speaking, Canadians are healthier than Americans, which means they may not see as many variations in diseases, cancers and comorbidities.
• In addition, the infant mortality rate is higher in the U.S than it is in Canada
• And finally the obesity rate is lower in Canada than it is in the U.S.

There are just a few of the differences. So all of these things can play a HUGE role in how they run their hospitals, how they may do their nursing clinicals, their infection rate, the standard precautions they practice as well as the type of care nurses deliver.   If you're a Canadian nursing student and you identify with this and you understand these changes, then unfortunately you need to be ready to adapt to these changes.

One thing I HIGHLY recommend is that you start familiarizing yourself now with more tested Americanized NCLEX material. Don't throw away everything you learned so far but now that you know your NCLEX exam is the same as our U.S. NCLEX exam this means you have to a little better understanding of the differences with our healthcare system (like I mentioned above) that may come up on the exam. Maybe it's that in your hospital systems you use different masks for different precautions than we do? Or there's some other roles the CNAs can do that we don't identify they can do. I honestly cannot say for sure because I've only learned and have always known the American Healthcare system and that's what I've been tested on in the past and that's what I passed with. But I want you to know that I understand your dilemma, the emotions or discouragement you may be having especially if you have failed your exam because of these changes.   One of the things I also created to help provide more insight on the most common NCLEX mistakes nurses are making is also in my free guide called "10 NCLEX Mistakes You Must Avoid So You Don't Fail Your Exam".

This is a detailed report on the top 10 mistakes nurses are currently making that are causing them to fail. In this report you will get

• What are the NCLEX Mistakes nurses are making that are setting them up for failure
• The key insights about these mistakes that's not only wasting your time but also your MONEY
• How to overcome EACH of these mistakes and apply immediate action to get passing results
• And so much more!

And the best part it's entirely FREE!

I've had nurses tell me that they've failed their exam, two, three even FOUR times and I want to help correct this problem and do something about it TODAY. So DO NOT wait!

Visit our store page https://nurse-chioma.mykajabi.com/store-page to download it for free today. 

*Sometimes you have realize that the best way to get ahead of the game is to already be one step ahead of the game!

 

Thank you SO much for reading!

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