A Comparison of RN-NCLEX First Time Pass Rate for Online Nursing Students and Traditional Face-to-Face Nursing Students

Nursing schools have always tried to educate their nursing students in such a way that when they take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN), they have a first time success.  This success has always been the number one goal of all nursing programs. At the same time, nursing schools are feeling the pressure of the growing need to increase the number of nursing graduates.  Many schools of nursing in the United States have tried to ease the burden of not having enough classroom space or faculty by increasing the number of online nursing programs. Nursing programs are loaded with teaching the necessary hands on skills required to be a competent nurse along with the didactic knowledge required.  With these requirements of a nursing graduate, is an online nursing program as effective as the traditional classroom nursing program in producing competent nurses and achieving the NCLEX-RN first time pass rate?