Florida Aims to Tighten Qualifications for Nursing Programs

Nursing programs in Florida would have to achieve accreditation within five years of accepting students under a bill sponsored by Republican State Senator Denise Grimsley.

Plummeting test scores and an increase in fail rates on the National Council Licensure Examination prompted legislators to propose the bill, according to a Miami Herald report. The lower test scores have been linked to bills passed in 2009 and 2010 that permitted trade schools and colleges to open nursing programs without approval of Florida's Board of Nursing.

Since July 2009, 73 percent of graduates of nursing programs created since 2009 were at least 10 percentage points below the national test average for 2013. The bill has received support from the Florida Nurses Association. "Part of being accredited means you need to have and maintain a certain test passage rate," said Anna Small, a Tampa, Fla., lawyer and past vice president of the Florida Nurses Association. "The new legislation will take care of a lot of these test score problems."

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