TAMPA, Fla. — As Florida struggles with a growing demand for nurses, its system for training them has a serious problem. Every year, thousands of nursing school graduates fail at the finish line, unable to make the final milestone required to become licensed.
Registered and practical nurses must pass the National Council Licensure Examination before they can practice anywhere in the United States. And Florida nursing students are failing at a rate higher than anywhere else in the nation.
Fewer than two-thirds of them passed the exam in 2021. That’s the lowest pass rate in the United States — falling more than 17 percentage points below the national average, according to a new report from the Florida Center for Nursing, based at the University of South Florida.
