The Northern Marianas College reports that most of its newest nursing graduates passed their licensure exam on their first attempt, which it says is a pass rate higher than the previous year’s pass rate.
According to Citizen Centric Report that the college submitted to the Office of the Public Auditor, 85% of the college’s students who graduated with associate degrees in nursing passed the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses, or NCLEX-RN, on their first try.
This is the exam that nursing graduates in the CNMI have to pass in order to be able to practice nursing. The exam results will show the students’ knowledge, skills, and abilities of nursing graduates in order to certify that they are equipped with the capability to apply entry level nursing practices correctly.
NMC interim president Frankie Eliptico expressed in a previous interview how proud he is of these NMC students. “We are really proud of the cohort of students that graduated in May 2020. …Most of them have already passed the NCLEX-RN test already. So now, [they] are working as registered nurses and are on their way to working as registered nurses and adding to that capacity of health care workforce in our community, battling not just the pandemic but other health care issues for the CNMI,” said Eliptico.
He is equally proud of the rest of the students who graduated in May 2020. “We are really proud of our students…not just in nursing but in all other fields. Whether they’re paramedics, firefighters, or police officers, they’re [all] front-liners. We have 1,300 students who are working at the airport, the seaport, grocery stores, wholesale stores—they’re working in areas that are considered front-line,” said Eliptico.
He said that all of NMC’s alumni and even current students are everywhere in the community and helping in powering the economy, whether it be at the Commonwealth Health Center, the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, the Department of Public Safety, their own business, etc., and that he’s proud of where they are at now.
The Citizen Centric Report also shows that NMC had the highest enrollment in the fall of 2020, at 1,323. In 2019, they had the second highest fall enrollment at 1,318. In 2020, NMC reported that 262 students graduated with degrees in Associate of Arts, Associate of Applied Science, Associate of Science, Bachelor of Science, and Certificate of Completion.
As of Jan. 6, just as NMC was finalizing the Fiscal Year 2019 Citizen Centric Report, its fiscal year 2020 audit report is still being conducted as an extension was granted because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That the report will be available before Dec. 31, 2020.
“It is worth noting that NMC has received a favorable audit opinion (an unqualified opinion) on its financial statements for the past 11 years,” said NMC.