“It is time for the School of Nursing to take responsibility for its students,” wrote Madeleine Kim, a fourth-year nursing student, in her organizing appeal to the Bouvet School of Nursing sent out on September 21.
The petition — signed by hundreds of nursing students as well as organizations including the NU Student Nurses Association and the Northeastern chapters of Kappa Kappa Gamma and Kappa Delta — was released in mid-September in response to the college's recent application Kaplan NCLEX Prep in all undergraduate nursing programs. Students expressed that this measure is a huge financial burden that was not communicated to them in a timely or transparent manner.
Like most online prep courses administered by commercial testing companies, Kaplan NCLEX Prep is intended to prepare enrolled students for the National Board Licensing Exam, otherwise known as NCLEXnationwide examination for licensure of nursing school graduates in the US and Canada.
In the email from School of Nursing Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs Kristen Mathieu Gonzalez announcing the statement on Sept. 1 — less than a week before fall classes begin — students were also told that 5 percent of their final grade in most Northeastern's nursing courses will be taken from exams taken in the Kaplan course, making enrollment absolutely mandatory in order to continue as part of the nursing program.
However, the email failed to mention a crucial detail: the cost.
While noting that enrollment in the Kaplan course would cost $165 for Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing, or ABSN, students, the email did not include the fact that enrollment would be $660 for those pursuing a traditional four-year BSN degree, leaving the huge majority of nursing students to find out on their own by the time they had to be paid.
In an interview with The News, Kim said the financial demands of the application are many and many, from not giving students time to prepare for the hefty costs to adding another out-of-pocket cost to the long list of co-pays. shopping for nursing students. already does.
According to Kim, because Northeastern nursing students are already required — in a time of rising tuition — to pay out of pocket for clinical uniforms, multiple diagnostic tests and lab kits, a mandatory NCLEX prep course from a private company feels like another way they lie to students about the costs required to supposedly benefit their education.
Lindsay Hurd, a fourth-year nursing student who also hadn't anticipated the extra financial burden this year, echoed the sentiment that she doesn't see where the nursing students' money is going.
“If I go to this school for nursing, I want my money to go toward my education,” Hurd said. “Northeastern prides itself on innovation and being technologically advanced — you think of ISEC and all the money they spend on engineering and computer science, and well, I would [also] I love being able to practice my skills in a more innovative and real-world environment, but my school doesn't provide me with the resources to do that.”
Both Heard and Kim noted that their ability to still pay for the Kaplan course, albeit unexpectedly, is a privilege not extended to students from low-income families, who, according to Kim, would invest “a huge piece of money… to Kaplan instead of putting it towards [their] their own livelihood and saving for [their] future.”
On Sept. 27, Kim said Mathieu Gonzalez told her in an email that many of the additional costs nursing students are expected to incur, including the $660 Kaplan course, are listed in Nursing School Undergraduate Student Handbook for the academic year 2021-2022.
However, according to Hurd, the values are embedded throughout the manual in a way that is intentionally hard to find, where they are only accessible if users use the find keyboard shortcut to type in a dollar sign. For Kim, regardless of whether the handbook specifically mentions the cost or not, the goal of her petition is to break the college's cycle of establishing fiscally burdensome programs and policies despite student outcry.
Aside from frustrations rooted in financial reasons, Kim expressed to The News that Bouvé's response ultimately reflects a continued lack of emotional support and investment in students.
“I just feel like we've been through enough,” Kim said. “They didn't support nursing students at all: our mental health [and] recognizing that it's hard to be in the hospital in the middle of a pandemic, working jobs where we were making $16 an hour, and they allowed this to happen.”
Despite feeling frustrated with professors who don't address the effects of the Kaplan app during classes, Kim said students are becoming more aware that faculty members can get caught in the middle.
In an Oct. 6 text statement to The News, an anonymous group made up of some faculty and staff at the School of Nursing clarified that they share the same concerns as the students against the administration.
“While the faculty is doing the best we can to support students in the classroom, we share their concern about the lack of transparency and clear communication from program administrators,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, faculty input and discussion regarding the current curriculum change that is causing student anxiety has not been forthcoming.”
The group also stressed that it fully supports students in taking a stand for their education.
“A Northeastern education is valuable. it is also very expensive. Students should be encouraged and supported to provide information about their academic experience and financial burdens,” an Oct. 7 text statement said. “We need proper channels for students to provide such evidence and we should support them in this process. As developing nurses, these skills will be essential to not only be strong patient advocates, but also feel confident to speak up to contribute to a healthy work environment… They cannot be ignored or pushed aside.”
For juniors in the nursing program, still years away from passing the NCLEX, navigating the confusion behind the Kaplan application takes on a new dimension.
Lusneyda Medina, a sophomore nursing student, told The News that while her grade was also emailed by Mathieu Gonzalez on Sept. 1, students' main concern was whether they would have to enroll in the prep program each semester until graduation — longer financial burden than that faced by fourth years.
Medina, who is paying $165 for the course this semester, claimed she was told by her professor that not only would an additional $500 be added to the price in her fourth year, but that if the Kaplan course was integrated into Northeastern's final grade of their course, sophomores should actually enroll in the course for as many semesters as they need until graduation.
In an Oct. 14 email to undergraduate nursing programs addressing recent student concerns, Mathieu Gonzalez clarified that students will not use Kaplan during the semesters they are in co-op and therefore will not be billed for those six months. Therefore, prices for the second and third year in the co-op will be adjusted, the email said.
Medina said there is a general feeling of confusion among sophomores as to why the mandatory measure is being extended to their class.
“It doesn't make sense for us to have to buy this whole complicated course with super in-depth information when we're just getting into the basics of nursing,” she said.
According to Kim's report, Bouvé's rationale for implementing the mandatory Kaplan course is to increase NCLEX pass rates, which were reportedly lower than usual. He notes that while raising pass rates should be the college's responsibility, the administration can overcompensate by requiring second and third years to start preparations early.
“As a sophomore you are [still] building your foundation in nursing skills,” Kim said. “I understand they want to get theirs [NCLEX] The pass rate is increasing, but… I don't think the onus should really be on the students, especially not the second and third years who are a long way from taking exams — I feel very overzealous.'
Mathieu Gonzalez also noted in her October 14 email that while the preparatory course has been implemented in the BSN program for years, it was only used in the Senior Practicum. Going forward, he wrote, “the course will be integrated throughout the curriculum over time [the] Four-semester students are enrolled in the BSN program, not the co-op.”
“This is how Kaplan designed the prep course to be used,” Mathieu Gonzalez wrote about the changed schedule.
Ultimately, some students, regardless of grade, feel deprived of their choice of how to prepare for the licensing exam.
While Kim said she would not label the students' collective action a “protest,” she expressed that this call for attention and action from the college is long overdue.
“I think I should be allowed to advocate for change and have a voice in what's happening to me as a student, because in nursing — a lot of times lately — we don't have a voice and we're just constantly being asked to spend money and that's where it came to a tipping point. Kim said.