NCLEX

The reason for our trip to Utah was so that Joni could take her NCLEX-RN: "The National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses"
All nurses have to pass this test before being hired as a nurse. This test lasts anywhere from an hour to 6 hours. You must pass with a certain percentage. If you get a few right, then a few wrong and so on you will have to keep doing questions until you either miss so many there is no way you can pass, or, you get so many right that you will pass no matter how many questions you get wrong afterwards. The test just shuts down once one of those criteria are reached. You don't know which group you are in, the passers or the failers. And to throw a little variety in the mix once in a while a random test taker has to take all 265 questions which takes the entire 6 hours. You don't know if you have missed so many that you had to keep taking questions, or if you were one of the random lucky ones that had to take the entire test.

Joni's test time was 8:00 am. She was pretty nervous and anxious going in to it. They had her empty her pockets, spit out her gum, show her authorization form that she was cleared to take the test and her photo ID. Then they photographed her and took her fingerprints. She went in and started taking the test. 75 questions in the minimum number of questions that can be taken before the test shuts down. If that happens you either aced them all or flunked them all, you don't know which. And that's what happened to Joni. 75 questions and the test ended. On her way out of the test they took her photo and fingerprinted her again. It's kind of comforting to know that security is that tight. I don't ever want to get stuck with a nurse that cheated to pass her NCLEX.

Joni had to wait a couple of days before she found out whether she passed or not. I was biting my fingernails right along with her. We knew the results would be posted this morning and they were.

She passed.

Whew!