Nursing Professor to Review National License Exam Questions
Published 11.01.2004
Janet McMahon, associate professor of nursing at Pennsylvania College of Technology,was selected to evaluate questions for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses.
She will travel to Chicago to serve on the Master Pool, reviewing the pool of questions that will be on the 2005 NCLEX-RN exam.
"It's a big deal," McMahon said. "I get to see the actual questions on the exam that future nursing students across the world are going to be taking."
The NCLEX-RN exam is administered by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Entry into the practice of nursing in the United States is regulated by licensing authorities. To ensure public protection, candidates for licensure are required to pass an exam that measures the competencies needed to perform safely and effectively as a newly licensed, entry-level registered nurse.
McMahon said she will be working with classified information. She will be "under lockdown" while participating, and may not discuss her work with anyone outside those also serving on the Master Pool. She also had to agree not to write questions in a textbook or tutor students for the exams during the next two years.
"It's a really good experience," she said. "This is really an advantage to our students because I teach a portion of the medical-surgical material in our curriculum."
McMahon has been involved with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing since 1997 and previously helped to write questions for the NCLEX-RN exam.
"This is a national honor," Dr. Deborah A. Wilson, dean of health sciences at Penn College, said of McMahon's selection.
For more information about the academic programs offered by the School of Health Sciences at Penn College, call (570) 327-4519, send e-mail or visit on the Web.