 Welcome to Nursing School Explained and this video on the next generation NCLEX exam. So this is the end of March 2023 and April 1st so in less than a week the next gen NCLEX will start to take an effect. Meaning that all the students, or the former students, the graduates that are going to take this exam at April 1st or after are going to get the version of the next gen NCLEX. The old version of the NCLEX is going away. Which means that if you have taken the NCLEX prior to April 1st and you were unsuccessful and you are taking it again, you are going to get that next gen NCLEX. But I made this video because I attended a seminar last week where a representative from the National Committee that builds the NCLEX actually talked about this next gen NCLEX to take away some of the myths and anxieties. So I thought I'd make a summary video and tell you all about this. So let's take a look at this. So first of all it applies for RN as well as PNs starting April 1st 2023 like I said. And why are they doing this? In general, like everything in nursing it's data driven. We collect the data, we analyze it and then we come to some sort of a conclusion. While that's exactly what the National State Board has done, they've come to the conclusion after researching data after data and all the NCLEX exams and the success rates of first year entry level nurses that the NCLEX exam might not be up to par with the requirements of an entry level nurse. And for reasons of patient safety and public safety they kind of upping the standards of the NCLEX to prepare the entry level nurses better for the practice setting. So it's really for the benefit of everybody, of the whole population of everybody that receives healthcare as well as the new nurses because they are going to be better prepared to take care of these sicker patients that we're seeing now. And so what's new is the minimum question now is 85 and the max is 150 or 5 hour time limit. So that's the max. And out of those 85 minimums there are 15 questions that are unscored which leaves the minimum scored to be 70. And you will not know which ones are the unscored questions. And there might be some repetitive question about the same topic that you're getting, maybe a question 5 you get something about a certain topic and then at question 27 it comes up the same topic comes up again. And this might be because one of the questions is scored and the other one is unscored or maybe they relate to one another. So don't jump to any conclusions why am I getting this topic again. Just go with it. Answer the question of the best of your ability and move on. What's really new are case studies and there are going to be a minimum of three case studies on every test and each case study has six questions. So basically that means that you're getting a particular patient care scenario with a practice care setting, maybe some data like vital signs, INO records, some lab values and they've divided them into six sections and they're always going to follow in this order, which means recognizing cues, analyzing these cues or the data given, prioritizing hypotheses, generating solutions, taking action and evaluating outcomes. Now these terms might sound really crazy and out there, but you've been trained to do this all of your nursing school life because you learned about the nursing process. Assessment, diagnosis or prioritization, planning, implementation and evaluation. It's exactly that just now we have six categories instead of just five for the nursing process. So there's just a little bit more detail and you're going to have to analyze the data that you're given and hopefully your professors have prepared you in such a way that you're comfortable going over case studies where it's kind of evolving the patient care scenario and maybe you're following a patient through different settings or you need to analyze and then you have some more labs coming back and those kind of things. And really it's not that different from what you've already been doing. So with this being said, there's three on every test that are scored, but because we have 15 unscored questions and each case study has six questions, we could fit two extra case studies in these 15 unscored items. So realistically, you could get five case studies. Of course, you will not know which ones are scored, which ones are unscored, but be prepared to answer these type of questions. Don't fret over it, just go with it. You are going to be well prepared. Questions might come from any practice setting. So whether that's acute care, pediatrics, long term care, home care setting, school nurse, community-based nursing, anything where an entry level nurse, meaning within the first year of practice, would be having a new job that they would start. So be prepared for any of these practice settings. And then reference ranges. There has been a lot of rumors about reference ranges. So if you do have labs on a case study or at any time during your NCLEX, reference ranges will be provided. And that is just common practice because hospital A's reference range for CBC might be a little bit different than hospital B. So if you memorize certain numbers, it might not be accurate to whatever hospital that you're working with or lab that you're working with. So that's why reference ranges will be provided, which is pretty common as is in general practice. So don't fret about having to memorize any of those reference ranges, although it's probably a good idea to have a general idea what those lab values generally are. And then the good news is now you get partial credit for these pesky, select all that apply questions. And the way it works, if you have a select all that apply question here, let's say there's five possible answers. And it just says select all that apply. So you don't know if it's one or if it's all five. So you come up with four choices here and three of them are correct and one is incorrect. So for the three correct ones, you get three plus points. And then for the incorrect one, you get a minus point, meaning that you end up with two points where previously, if you would have scored like this, it would have been zero points. So now that partial credit is actually going to help you score a little bit better on your NCLEX exam. Partial credit, there might also be a question that says which four of these apply to the patient case scenario. So now you know that only four of the five here are correct. And again, let's say you choose three that are correct and one that's incorrect. If there is a specific number given that they are looking for, then the score is a little bit different. So now you have plus three because you got three correct, but the incorrect one doesn't count for a minus point. So now that's basically three minus zero, you get three points here out of the possible four that might have been here. So that partial credit is really going to help you and benefit you if you're missing one or two or several of the select all that apply. Just know that it is not going to help you to select every single one of them because you're going to get negative points here too in case you have an incorrect one. And then computer adaptive testing, you've probably heard about this from your professors. The computer knows the difficulty of the test item and the more difficult the test item, the higher the score will be and also meaning that the level of correct answer has to be a little bit lower, the more difficult the item is. So this computer adaptive testing will take into account how you're doing on your previous question and give you more difficult questions depending on how you're doing. If you're doing really well, you're going to get more difficult questions, but they're also going to be scored higher. They're going to move you over on that line that tells you passing or not passing. So this accounts for the item difficulty. So the easier items are going to be scored more on the closer to the pass-fail line, but the difficult items are going to be more on the passing side of things. Then there is this thing that the passing standard will not be adjusted until April 2026, meaning that that line, that fine line between passing and not passing, typically is adjusted up every year or every few years that they review it. But because with this next gen NCLEX, this passing standard is going to stay the same for three years. So until April 2026, so know that whether you're taking the NCLEX in April 2023 or March of 2026, it'll be the same standard. So that's really nice to know. And one of the most important things here, the bulk of the exam will be the same as before. So you're going to have multiple choice questions. You're going to have these case studies, but the bulk of it is going to be the same as before every question, format and style that you've already seen during all of your nursing school career. And then there is a different type of question that I actually didn't exactly know what that means or what the term means. So they're called bow tie or trending questions that are standalone questions. And standing alone means just that there's one question and there's some data that you have to review more so than a case study where six questions pertain to the same kind of case scenario. So that's one case scenario. You might have given nurses notes, vital signs, HMP flow sections, INO charts, any kind of trends that you can see vital signs in particular. And these bow tie questions, then you're going to have a certain condition given and then you have a list of actions and a list of things to monitor. And from based on the condition that you're looking at, you're going to look at the list of actions and whichever action applies, you're going to put in this bow tie form here. And the same thing with the list of things to monitor. So you're going to read through this list of things to monitor, whatever applies to the condition that they give you, you're going to fill these in right here. And then this looks like a bow tie. If you look at it like this and this is the thing that I first didn't understand bow tie, what does that mean? But it just looks like a bow tie and that's it. So really, there's not a whole lot of reason to be extra anxious about this next gen inclex exam because the bulk is the same. You've already done this. The case scenario is following the nursing process, answering the six questions and then come into conclusions based on what you already know. So please go out and practice these questions. Look at the resources, specifically the success series from FA Davis and I have a couple of resources where I have some recommendations there that are really, really helpful for passing your inclex. So I'll put those videos in the video, the links in the video description below so you have the links. And I also have a special discount for FA Davis products so that you can get familiar with practicing these type of questions. You got this next gen inclex, no big deal. You're well prepared. You've done two, three, four years of school. You are going to rock this exam. Good luck and thanks for watching Nursing School Explained. See you soon.