Evolving Licensure Examination: Assessing Student Confidence and Accuracy With Next Generation NCLEX.

BACKGROUND: The Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) includes new item types. Little is known about nursing students' confidence and accuracy in answering these questions. METHOD: A descriptive comparative study examined prelicensure nursing students' confidence and accuracy in answering NGN-style items versus multiple-choice questions (MCQs) of the same content via a 12-item quiz. RESULTS: Less than one third of students (n = 194; 32.1%) reported feeling confident in answering NGN questions. Students' confidence levels had no relationship on scores with NGN items. When comparing NGN-style items to MCQs, students' (n = 221) scores on NGN-style items were lower with bowtie or a select-all-that-apply questions but higher with highlight table or matrix multiple-choice questions. CONCLUSION: Students' lack of confidence with certain item types suggests faculty should incorporate these item types into classroom activities or course assignments. NGN test-taking strategies also should be incorporated and frequently reinforced throughout the curriculum. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(4):252-255.].

Social Determinants of Health: Understanding the Basics and Their Impact on Chronic Kidney Disease.

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are non-medical factors, such as socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood/physical environment, social network, employment, and access to health care, which can shape individuals' health and affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. These social determinants of health and their associated health disparities and inequities are powerful predictors of mortality and morbidity. Chronic kidney disease disproportionally affects populations with relatively poor social determinants of health. Knowledge of social determinants, applying what one knows, and addressing the social, economic, and physical barriers to health can help improve individual and population health, reduce health disparities, and advance health equity.

Demographics of the older adult and chronic kidney disease: a literature review.

Older adults (65 years of age and older) comprised 4.1% of the population in 1900 (3.1 million), rose to 13.0% in 2010 (40.3 million), and are projected to reach 16.1% in 2020 (54.8 million). With each decade, there has been a steady increase, including older adults, in the population with chronic kidney disease. This article provides a review of the literature related to the demographics of the older adult population and older adults with chronic kidney disease. It also explores life expectancy, health promotion, and the economic impact of chronic kidney disease and its co-morbidities.

Recruitment, retention and matriculation of ethnic minority nursing students: a University of Mississippi School of Nursing approach.

According to Bednash (2000), the future of health care pivots on an adequate supply of appropriately educated and skilled professional registered nurses. Recognizing the long history of and the struggles by African-American (AA) nurses for education and equality in the nursing profession, it is essential that more African-American students be recruited, retained, and matriculated into the profession of nursing. African-American nurses have always contributed to the care of the poor and the sick and played a decisive role in the improvement of the health of their communities. The Bureau of Health Professions Division of nursing (March 2000) reported that 86.6 percent of the registered nurse population were white while 12.3 percent represented racial and ethnic minority groups. Given the current racial/ethnic background of the registered nurse population in the United States, there is an obvious disparity in the representation of minorities in the nursing profession, in spite of the increasing number of minorities represented in the general population. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to document strategies that are used to actively recruit, retain, and graduate ethnic minority students from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) School of Nursing (SON).