Deans and directors of nursing programs across West Virginia are comparing notes, but cannot find a direct reason for why nursing students in West Virginia are less likely to pass the national test to get their licenses than their counterparts in any other state.Preliminary data from the state’s Board of Registered Professional Nurses for 2007 rank West Virginia 50th out of 56 jurisdictions, said Pamela Alderman, the board’s president. The six jurisdictions below West Virginia are territories and islands, she said.Students who complete nursing programs, whether baccalaureate or associate, must take the National Council Licensure Examination to receive their license. Their first attempt at the test is recorded and used to rank the state. In 2006, West Virginia’s rate was about 81 percent, Alderman said. In 2007, it dropped to 80 percent, according to the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses, she said. The national average is about 86 percent, she said. The West Virginia nursing board requires state nursing programs to maintain an 80 percent passing rate, she said. Wynn said the state’s shortage of qualified nursing faculty, low salaries for nursing faculty and nursing programs’ admission requirements for incoming students all play into West Virginia’s low ranking.Retaining and recruiting faculty is another issue programs across the state are also facing, Kyle said.“The minimum qualification for a nursing faculty is a masters in nursing, and to put it bluntly nurses can stay in other kinds of settings or in other types of institutional settings and make a lot more money,” Kyle said.

One program that has been directly affected by the shortage is Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College’s nursing program in Moorefield. The program did not accept students this year because it lost its site coordinator, Nicole Herndon, administrative secretary for the community college’s nursing program in Institute, said. Read more