news-record.com

N.C. A&T reports encouraging strides in test scores among its nursing students.

Eighty-four percent of A&T students passed the 2007 national nursing licensure examination. That represents a 15-percent jump versus the previous year's scores and an encouraging step in the right direction.

Is it improvement enough? Not yet. The UNC system requires that 85 percent of students in any state university's nursing program pass the national exam, which measures the students' command of the knowledge required to be a practicing nurse. The state nursing board requires a passing rate of 75 percent.

The program remains under sanctions from the nursing board and the UNC Board of Governors. But the improved results do provide tangible evidence that what was broken is being fixed.

A&T is one of three UNC programs whose nursing passage rates fell below system standards. A&T, UNC Charlotte and N.C. Central University were ordered to cut their enrollments by 15 percent until the scores improved to acceptable levels.

Among one of the most obvious problems at A&T was an apparent lapse in admissions requirements in which some students who lacked the appropriate credentials were allowed into the program.

Thankfully, A&T not only addressed that issue but has raised the admissions bar for all students under first-year Chancellor Stanley Battle. Battle rightly has decided that, even if enrollment temporarily drops, it serves no purpose to admit students who are not equipped to do the work and complete their degrees.

Battle also is partnering with the public schools to work with students as early as fourth grade to increase the pool of qualified college applicants.

Meanwhile, the demand for nurses in North Carolina is acute. North Carolina's shortage of nurses is expected to reach 18,000 by 2020, the N.C. Institute of Medicine predicts.

That's why A&T's fortunes on the nursing exams should matter to you, too.