NCSBN releases a test plan for the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN every 3 years. Both were released to be effective April 1, 2023.
The RN test plan has 4 major categories with 2 of those categories having sub-categories, and multiple activity statements.
Safe and Effective Care Environment
-Management of Care [15-21%]
-Safety and Infection Control [10-16%]
Health Promotion and Maintenance [6-12%]
Psychosocial Integrity [6-12%]
Physiological Integrity
-Basic Care and Comfort [6-12%]
-Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies [13-19%]
-Reduction of Risk Potential [9-15%]
-Physiological Adaptation [11-17%]
The PN test plan differs slightly from the RN
Safe and Effective Care Environment
-Coordinated Care [18-24%]
-Safety and Infection Control [10-16%]
Health Promotion and Maintenance [6-12%]
Psychosocial Integrity [9-15%]
Physiological Integrity
-Basic Care and Comfort [7-13%]
-Pharmacological Therapies [10-16%]
-Reduction of Risk Potential [9-15%]
-Physiological Adaptation [7-13%]
In addition to the questions on NCLEX that are testing a particular activity statement on the test plan, NCSBN has complex item types that will assess students’ clinical judgment ability.
To best prepare our students for NCLEX, instructors should be using the NCSBN’s test plan to write questions for assessments, guide curriculum, and activities in the classroom, nursing lab, and clinical.
Test questions that are purely memorization or recall should be eliminated from assessments as these types of questions do not prepare students to be safe practitioners. Instead test questions should focus on what the nurse needs to do. Examples follow the nursing process.
Assessment: What is the appropriate assessment? What are the normal and
abnormal findings?
Diagnosis: What is going on with the patient? What do these findings mean?
Planning: What should be done to fix the problem? What is the priority action to
take to fix the problem?
Implementation: What are the safe actions to take to help the patient and fix the
problem? In what order should these actions be taken?
Evaluation: What are the outcomes of the actions taken?
Test questions that are assessing clinical judgment should be written to one or more of the clinical judgment functions
Recognize cues
Analyze cues
Prioritize hypotheses
Generate solutions
Take actions
Evaluate outcomes
These items also include content that mimics a patient electronic medical record.
(details of the clinical judgment assessment model will be in a future blog)
Focusing on the NCSBN test plan isn’t teaching to the test, rather it is focusing on the important tasks that entry level nurses need to know to be safe practitioners.
Resources used:
NCSBN.org