A five-year trend analysis of the Philippine Nurse Licensure Examination (2014-2018)

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study analyzed the trend of the Philippine Nurse Licensure Examination (NLE) results from 2014 to 2018.@*Design@#A retrospective research design was used to describe the five-year trend in the NLE. It determined the association between NLE outcome (pass/fail) and the type of examinee (first time vs. repeat examinees) and timing (month) of taking the exam (May/June vs. November).@*Methods@#Trends in NLE results were examined to determine the pass and fail rates over five years as an indication of the quality of nursing education. Secondary data analysis was conducted after collecting publicly available NLE data. Odds ratios were estimated to express whether the odds of passing differ for the type of examinee and month of taking the NLE.@*Findings@#The overall pass rates indicated a decreasing trend over the past five years (47.5% to 41.3%). The first-time pass rates showed an increasing trend (70.6% to 77.3%) while the repeat pass rates revealed a decreasing trend (31.6% to 28.2%). The odds of passing the NLE among first-time examinees is 7.01 times the odds of passing the NLE compared to repeat examinees [OR = 7.01 (95% CI = 6.86, 7.12)]. The odds of passing the NLE in November is 1.32 times the odds of passing in May/June [OR = 1.32 (95% CI = 1.29, 1.34)].@*Conclusions@#Despite the increasing first-time pass rates, a large number of nursing graduates still fail the NLE, especially among the repeat-takers. The results of this study can be used to improve nursing programs by developing measures to increase the NLE passing performance through assisting at-risk first-time examinees prior to taking the NLE and developing programs to assist graduates who will retake the NLE.