Undergraduate nursing majors maintained their track record on the NCLEX exam.

Students in La Salle University’s undergraduate nursing program eclipsed the Pennsylvania and national averages with an 88.66% first-time pass rate on their national licensure exams for registered nurses. 

Their cumulative average on the national council licensure examination, or NCLEX, exceeded the 88.2% average posted by their Pennsylvania peers during the most-recent exam cycle for the period of Oct. 1, 2020–Sept. 30, 2021, according to data released in December by the Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing.  

La Salle undergraduate nursing students also outperformed the national NCLEX first-time pass rate average of 83.22% for the same cycle period. 

“This is a remarkable achievement for our nursing graduates during this unprecedented time,” said Kathleen Czekanski, Ph.D., R.N., professor of nursing and dean of La Salle’s School of Nursing and Health Sciences. “Despite the challenges that the pandemic has presented and continues to create, our nursing students committed to their licensure exam preparation and excelled. They have extended the legacy of La Salle’s nursing program and we are confident in their ability to lead as registered nurses.” 

This is the latest high-profile achievement for La Salle’s undergraduate nursing program. In September, U.S. News & World Report ranked La Salle among the nation’s top providers of undergraduate nursing education. 

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to coincide with what health care experts have described as a national nursing shortage and a skills gap among professional nurses. La Salle nursing students and others in pre-professional health care disciplines have jumped at the opportunity to help. They have volunteered at La Salle’s COVID-19 testing center on campus. They have provided staffing support in the University’s contact tracing efforts. La Salle alumni continue to help on the pandemic’s frontline. 

Hands-on training, clinical experiences, and virtual simulations offered at La Salle—before and throughout the pandemic—have helped students and graduates like Emma Capro, ’20, prepare for their professional journeys. 

“No matter which specialty I end up in, this is something we’re taught in class every day is that we’re meant to help people, especially at a time like this,” Capro said in an interview with the Harrisburg Patriot-News.  

—Christopher A. Vito