TAMPA BAY TIMES – As Florida struggles with a growing demand for nurses, its system for training them has a serious problem. Every year, thousands of nursing school graduates fail at the finish line, unable to make the final milestone required to become licensed.
Registered and practical nurses must pass the National Council Licensure Examination before they can practice anywhere in the United States. And Florida nursing students are failing at a rate higher than anywhere else in the nation.
Fewer than two-thirds of them passed the exam in 2021. That’s the lowest pass rate in the United States — falling more than 17 percentage points below the national average, according to a new report from the Florida Center for Nursing, based at the University of South Florida.
Not all Florida nursing programs are failing. The majority of the state’s public universities, community colleges and nonprofit institutions have pass rates at or above the national averages for both registered and practical nurses.
The problem lies with a subset of private, for-profit programs that enroll thousands of students every year, many of which have pass rates below 50%.
The report comes amid an unprecedented nursing shortage, said Florida Hospital Association CEO Mary Mayhew.
More than one in five nursing positions at Florida hospitals is vacant, Mayhew said, and staff turnover is at a historic high.
The staffing shortfall has rocked hospitals and nursing homes across the state.
And unless the state can reverse the trend, hospitals are projected to be short by 59,100 nurses by 2035, according to a 2021 study from the Florida Hospital Association and Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida.
Florida is producing more licensed nurses than ever before. More than 12,400 registered nurses passed the national exam in 2021, up nearly 30% in the past five years. It’s the largest graduating class of licensed nurses in the nation, but still not enough to meet soaring demand.
“The state is heading for a cliff unless educators can graduate more nurses capable of passing the final exam.” – Rayna Letourneau, Florida Center for Nursing
