A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Remediation Interventions to Improve NCLEX-RN Pass Rates

First-time NCLEX-RN pass rates are important measures of educational quality in prelicensure nursing education programs. Licensure pass rate problems has been the subject of countless nursing education articles and studies over the past several decades. To improve NCLEX-RN pass rates, remediation is often prescribed for students who have academic performance deficits. This article presents a systematic review of studies on remediation interventions and their effects on NCLEX-RN pass rates. Most studies of remediation and its effects on licensure pass rates are descriptive program evaluation reports. The overall quality of studies included in this review is uneven but generally low. Nursing education researchers should focus on conducting higher quality intervention studies in which the fidelity of remediation interventions can be examined. Viewing licensure pass rates from a process improvement perspective and accounting for pass rate variations could also change the nature of scholarship on this topic.