How is the NCLEX-RN examination constructed?
Every candidate’s examination conforms to the NCLEX-RN which controls inclusion of important nursing content. The test plan serves as a blueprint in the construction of the examination. The new NCLEX-RN Test Plan became effective in April 1998. All examinations, regardless of their length, have the required proportion of questions or items from each area (category) of the NCLEX Test Plan. These areas include: Safe and Effective Care Environment; Health Promotion and Maintenance; Psychosocial Integrity; and Physiological Integrity. The content represented in the test plan is based on the results of a job analysis that is repeated every three years. Nurses who have been on the job for just six months report to the National Council the type of tasks for which they are responsible, how often the tasks are performed, and the priority of these tasks. These data are combined into an importance weighting for each task. The tasks are combined into content areas, and their importance weights sum
