PENDLETON — Associate degree nursing faculty at Tri-County Technical College are celebrating graduates’ National Council Licensing Exam (NCLEX – RN) scores that exceed both state and national averages.

The college’s Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) program reports a 94.67 percent pass rate for first-time exam takers between the period of December 2014 and June 2015. The college had approximately 100 graduates who took the exam during that period and became licensed.

As of June of this year, the state average is 92.92 percent and the national average is 87.92 percent. Graduates of associate or baccalaureate nursing programs must pass the NCLEX- RN exam to become a registered nurse in the State.

Peggy Deane, former vice president for nursing at AnMed Health and a member of the ADN advisory committee, told the graduates they bring honor to Tri-County and the associate degree nursing program.

“I commend the committed and dedicated faculty. When I was at AnMed, we were delighted to hire Tri-County graduates. Nursing means being caring and compassionate and kind. That’s what you are as leaders and that’s the graduates you produce. I commend you and congratulate you,” she said.

“I’m proud of our faculty’s hard work to prepare students for the licensure exam and the workforce,” said Jackie Rutledge, ADN department head.

One of the department’s success strategies was to incorporate ATI assessment tools in all nursing classes to familiarize students with the NCLEX format and to enhance and fine tune their critical-thinking skills.

ATI Nursing Education is an assessment tool training program to prepare students to take the NCLEX exam. It offers educational products that test students’ knowledge in a variety of content areas, such as nursing fundamentals, pediatrics, medical surgical, psychiatric, community health and obstetrical nursing.

Rutledge said in the final class, Nursing 221, students must take a comprehensive predictor test which encompasses material from the past two years.

Rutledge added that after experiencing a dip in board scores a year and a half ago, the faculty, as a group, decided to adopt ATI strategies in the curriculum to prepare students to be successful.

This release provided by Tri-County Technical College.