Welcome to a new academic year!!

Hi all - It's that time to elect officers! We have several positions open - President Elect, Board Member and Committees - Finance/Audit, Strategic Planning, Nominations, Membership, and Scholarship/Awards.  You must be a NLN member and LLN member to serve.  Please complete the link if interested - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JP7CDV8    Link will be open until September 26 and then we will vote in October with our virtual Annual Meeting in late October.  Please consider being on the board!

This year, the board is reviewing our purpose and benefits for the nursing education community.  Dr. Justin Fontenot, board member, has developed a short survey to make the assessment.  Please consider completing by October 15.  Here is the link - https://tinyurl.com/5y49z3dp   We will discuss at our Annual Meeting and determine the viability of our group.  Thank you. 

The Louisiana League for Nursing now has a representative on the Louisiana Action Coalition.  Dr. Hope Webb from William Carey University is our representative.  She will be providing us updates and news from the group.  An upcoming event is the 2023 Virtual Culture of Health Summit - October 25 and 26 - 9am - 12:45 pm both days.  To register - La Action Coalition Summit   We continue to have a non-voting member on LaCANE, 

Scholarship awards for this Spring are - Madison Hebert from the ASN Program at Louisiana Tech and Carlye Hayes from the BSN at Northwestern State University - Alexandria Campus.  Application process will begin in January 2024.  Chairs are Deborah Hickman and Rebecca Harrell.  Congratulations!

LLN can place two articles in the Pelican News.  If you are interested in submitting an article for the January 2024 issue, send your article to Dr. Debra Shelton- RNeducator@gmail.com by November 10 for review and consideration.

If you don't already know, the NCSBN made changes to the NCLEX April 2023.  We are still referring to the exam as the NCLEX, with a new format you may hear NextGen.  The NCLEX now includes next generation features, using real-world case studies to measure a nurse's ability to think more critically and make the right decisions. The academic community was concerned over the changes, but nationwide pass rates have increased for the first quarter of testing.  In a email from the NCSBN CEO David Benton RGN, PhD, FRCN, FAAN, comments, “We are very pleased that the launch of NGN was seamless for candidates. The increase in those who passed the exam is a reflection of how well the enhanced test mirrors actual nursing practice. NGN is a better measurement of how safe and competent a nurse is to practice on day one, and that increases public protection.”   Entry-level nurses are required to make increasingly complex decisions while delivering patient care. These decisions routinely require the use of clinical judgment to care for patients safely and effectively.   At the heart of the enhanced exam is the NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model (NCJMM), which is a framework for the valid measurement of clinical judgment and decision making within the context of a standardized, high-stakes examination. RN Pass rates nationwide for first time, US educated was 94.32%,  This is an increase of 14% from the first quarter of 2023.  Louisiana also saw an increase in pass rates. 

The 2023 NCLEX Conference virtual meeting by the NCSBN will be September 21.  This year's conference will include

• Overviews on NCLEX exam development and operations;
• A session on how NCSBN ensures fairness for different groups taking the NCLEX via sensitivity and differential item functioning;
• An update on the Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) since its launch on April 1, and a discussion on the essential role clinical judgment plays in entry-level nursing;
• In-depth sessions on item scoring, standard setting and Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT); and
• An educator panel, during which attendees can have their pressing questions answered.

Cost is $75.  Registration closes September 7 - Link to register is - Registration

Thank you for your continued support of the league.  Dr. Debra Shelton