Current societal and healthcare system trends highlight the need to transform nursing education to prepare nurses capable of outstanding practice in the 21st century. Patricia Benner and colleagues urged nurse educators to transform their practice in the 2010 publication Educating Nurses, A Call to Radical Transformation. Frequently utilized pedagogical frameworks in nursing education include behaviorism and constructivism. Much of the structure and basis for instruction and evaluation can be found rooted in these philosophies. By first exploring both behaviorism and constructivism and then relating their use in nursing education to the call to transform, educators can be encourage to examine current practice and possibly modify aspects to include more rich experiential learning.

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First-time success rate on the NCLEX-RN examination has significant implications for BSN students, faculty, and schools of nursing. Many nursing programs utilize standardized examinations such as the HESI Exit Exam to quantify student success on knowledge of nursing concepts and to prepare students for success on the NCLEX-RN. Nursing faculty must be able to identify predictors of student success early in the nursing program in order to offer appropriate support and remediation. The purpose of this retrospective, correlational study was to determine predictive variables of BSN student success on the HESI Exit Exam in a southeastern university. Students who reported higher test anxiety scored significantly lower on the HESI Exit Exam. Higher medical-surgical I HESI examination scores, higher medical-surgical II HESI examination scores, higher obstetrics HESI examination scores, and higher final grade point average were significant predictors of students' HESI Exit Exam scores and accounted for 39% of the variance in the scores. Results from this study suggest implementing remediation based on HESI Specialty Exam scores and interventions aimed at reducing test anxiety.

ObjectivesExamine and analyze the resilience levels of first and second semester BSN students in order to check for significant increases and decreases in resilience levels and factors.MethodsResilience levels were collected using the Connor Davidson CD-RISC-25 tool in both first and second semester students.ResultsNo significant increases in resilience from first to second semester were noted, as anticipated. Several key areas showed significant decrease.ConclusionResilience levels do not necessarily increase from one semester to the next; however, several significant decreases in levels did occur, suggesting a need for a resilience training module in the nursing program.