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State Fair Community College’s 2010 nursing graduates had a 100 percent pass rate on their National Council of State Boards of Nursing exams, according to an SFCC news release.

Rhonda Hutton Gann, nursing program administrator at SFCC, said 25 students who graduated in May and 22 students who graduated in July passed the licensure exams.

“It’s fantastic that the students have done so well,” she said. “It speaks to the quality of our nursing faculty and the support we have from the college and the community.”

Hutton Gann attributed part of the success to curriculum changes and new facilities.

“We’ve made major curriculum changes in the last couple years that we think have contributed to the higher success rate,” she said. “We’ve also been fortunate that all our clinical sites are very receptive to helping our students while they are in clinical rotations.”

In fall 2008, the program moved into the new Heckart Science and Allied Health Center, which includes a nursing skills hospital simulation room modeled after a hospital nursing unit. The center features a central nursing station with computerized charting and monitoring equipment and six fully equipped patient cubicles. Students also have access to computer-driven human patient simulators and multimedia classrooms equipped with SMART Board technology. Full-sized mannequins provide hands-on learning as well.

Students enrolled in the practical nursing program, or Year One program, had a 100 percent pass rate as well. Hutton Gann said 16 members of the December 2009 graduating class passed their exams. SFCC’s PN program was one of 14 out of 47 programs in the state with a 100 percent pass rate.

An additional 22 PN students graduated from SFCC in July and all have passed their board exams as well, Hutton Gann said. But, the college has yet to receive comparative statistics from the state on how the July graduates of other nursing programs performed on the exam.
SFCC’s Year Two program, which is for associate degree students studying to become registered nurses, had 24 graduates in December 2009 and 25 in May. All but one of the December 2009 graduates passed the exam, Hutton Gann said.

All nursing graduates take the National Council Licensure Examination.

“I don’t know of any of our students who are unable to get a job in nursing,” Hutton Gann said. “Our community hospitals and regional health care employers do a great job hiring our graduates and then giving them the support they need as new graduates.”

Brent Bates, vice president of SFCC’s educational and student support services, praised the college’s nursing staff for their commitment to the profession and to the college.

“This extraordinary pass rate is the result of a tremendous amount of effort from each faculty member,” he said. “It’s a fantastic example of top educators working together to provide quality curriculum and training so our students will succeed.”