LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nursing students at Las Vegas College are left in limbo after their school was found violating the Nevada State Board of Nursing policy.
"We were informed last Friday that there were high stakes testing going on in our nursing program," said Las Vegas College president Peter Mikhail. "We were informed by the Board of Nursing that we were not to do this, and we eliminated the practice immediately."
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"High stakes testing" is a form a practice where proctored exams are weighed heavily in the completion of a course.
The practice was banned in Nevada in 2012 when the Board added language in current regulation that states, "A program of nursing must not use a standardized examination for determining the successful completion of the program."
The practice is widely used in other states, often to improve first time NCLEX test rates. NCLEX is the exam nursing students take to get licensed, but not a required exam to graduate from a nursing education program.
Mikhail said he was unaware "high stakes testing" was happening at the school.
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"I didn't know why it had been put in place," said Mikhail. "We are working on rectifying it. We're very focused on student experience. We want to make sure that everybody comes out happy and successful."
Students at Las Vegas College can retake a failed course free of charge, according to Mikhail. He said this is a school policy that has always existed.
13 Action News spoke to students who wanted to remain anonymous. One student said she would have passed the recent course she took, if it wasn't for the proctored exam.
She gave this statement:
"As a student, we did not just lose money, but time invested, all the hard work we thought that would pay off. We were easily set up for failure, this has affected our loved ones as well, emotionally and mentally. Las Vegas College teaches student nurses to advocate for patients but will not advocate for their own students. What they did is unethical, I feel cheated when I could have progressed and successfully passed the program."
Mikhail said Las Vegas College has launched an internal investigation to find out more about why "high stakes testing" was implemented into the nursing program and how long it has been going on for.
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"We're here. We're working on a resolution," 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."
Nevada State Board of Nursing was unable to comment on the situation.
