HESI Petition: Students of Duquesne University School of Nursing

I'm going to be a sophomore nursing student at duquesne this fall and I really hope the make some changes regarding the HESI and many other things.

Totally unfair! These students have earned their degrees.

I will assume that lawyers are involved for these nursing students as they should be. Are these universities now bending and becoming so PC that they don't know where the funding begins and ends? You are funded by your students, their families and alumni. Seems to me you are headed down a death spiral with making up your own standardized testing and then changing just a bit when the pressure mounted. I am not a lawyer but if I were, I would have told you to fall in line with all other schools and not try to be a martyr but I think you are beyond that.

These young adults work so hard for many years in school to succeed, don't hold them back, let them study and take the test that matters to get out in the nursing field.

Use the HESI as an assessment tool, judge the students on their entire body of work.

I strongly support this decision as a duquense university school of nursing student graduating in May 2018

I have read and totally agree with this petition.

I had friends personally affected by these mandated rules of not allowing students to graduate even if their score was a 924. This does need to be investigated and changed in favor of the success of the Duquese nursing students.

The Hesi was established as a beneficial tool to identity strengths and weakness amongst nursing content. Duquesne University has used such testing inappropriately. As a second degree nursing student, I firmly believe it is not an issue of content, but rather a disconnect between classes and various testing bases. There is a lack of continuity amongst nursing content, which creates for confusion and contradiction amongst sources. When asking the professors, which sources to use for practice there is a great deal of uncertainty. We are told the Hesi is created by evolve and use evolve products, however we are guided to use other sources which makes for a lot of grey area. It is an amazing accomplishment for students who have passed the exit Hesi, however that does NOT mean other students are not trying or that they are not intelligent. If nursing school was easy everyone would do it. With that being said, as second degree students we take on 22-24 credits every semester and have already finished one bachelor degree program. We are intelligent, educated individuals with a heavy course load. It is often a balancing act of are there enough hours in the day. We have been told we should be studying every day for the HESi, however when you have class for 13 hours a day it creates quite the predicament. Do you choose to attend class and truly learn how to become a nurse or skip to try to pass a test that is nothing like the NCLEX examination? Furthermore, nursing schools ranked higher than Duquesne do not require benchmarks. Schools like The University of Pittsburgh have an EXCELLENT NCLEX pass rate without having such stipulations.

I wholeheartedly support this petition. The people who are posting comments against this petition and berating those students who are fighting against Duquesne's use of the HESI exam, have no compassion or empathy for their fellow classmates. These people should NOT be in the nursing profession, since compassion and empathy are the core values of being a good nurse. You can have straight A's and get a perfect score on the HESI and pass the NCLEX on the first try...BUT if you do not have compassion and empathy for your fellow human beings, you will NEVER be a good nurse. You will learn more in your first year on the job as a nurse than you did from any book or test throughout your entire education. For all who do not know this, the HESI website itself, specifically states that the HESI exit exam should not be used as the sole measure to deny graduation. It's purpose is to be used as a tool to point out areas where additional work MAY be needed to pass the NCLEX.

HESI should not be used against nursing students as unfair benchmarks are only present to benefit Duquesne University! Plus this exam was never intended to be used as a barrier to graduation.

I support this petition and everyone who is fighting to reverse this injustice. It is not fair for students to be told they are not eligible graduate from the program when they have completed 4 years of difficult classes/exams, for a test that is not even written by their professors and is not consistent with studying material and resources. HESI should not stand in the way of becoming a nurse. This is what NCLEX is designed for. Dismissing this HESI requirement does not mean students would go on to become "unsafe" licensed registered nurses. It means they would have the opportunity to take the NCLEX - the only test that is mandated to test readiness to practice safe and quality nursing. Please listen to these students and be sure to fully understand their arguments and supporting research before writing upsetting and discouraging comments. These students, myself included, ARE STUDYING and doing everything in their power to perform well on this high stakes test that was not made to act as a barrier to graduating from a nursing program. Even the HESI website states this itself.... I encourage you to read this petition in full and take the time to consider the reasoning behind this argument. Thank you.

What if i did bad on the SATs (STANDARDIZED EXAM) and was denied entry to college because of it after 4 years of paying for a private high school? I'd use SAT study books or get a tutor and try again.. similar to the many HESI study books available and free HESI tutoring these students have access too...

:)

I know for a fact there are several HESI books you can study to successfully pass this exam. IN ADDITION, the HESI was a course exam. Does Role Prep ring a bell? It was a pass/fail class. You either pass the hesi or you don't. It's college. You take tests. You pass them. You graduate.

Fix it.

Our future careers as nurses should NOT depend solely on an exit examination while the previous four years of education are disregarded. It is UNFAIR and UNJUST.

Supporting the nursing students present and future.

I am going into my senior year at DUQ SON and fully agree with this petition.

I agree with this petition wholeheartedly, and have from the very beginning.