FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2004

NCSBN SELECTS FIRST THREE COUNTRIES TO OFFER NCLEX® ABROAD

Chicago, IL -   The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) at www.ncsbn.org has selected the first three countries for purposes of offering the NCLEX® examinations abroad for domestic nurse licensure purposes.   NCSBN’s Board of Directors affirmed the decision at its May meeting upon recommendation from the NCSBN Examination Committee.  NCLEX testing is expected to begin January 2005 in Seoul, South Korea; London, England; and Hong Kong. 

“These are the initial countries where testing will begin,” stressed NCSBN Director of Testing Services, Dr. Casey Marks.  He added that, “The Examination Committee was faced with difficult choices in order to choose the first locations.  If the initiative proceeds as well as expected, additional countries will be added when warranted.” 

“NCSBN utilized rigorous selection criteria in making this decision on what countries to pilot the initiative,” said Kathy Apple, NCSBN Executive Director.  She added, “I feel the Examination Committee and Board made excellent initial choices.” 

That selection criterion included security and geographic representation outside of the current member board of nursing locations.  The countries selected were highly rated against this criterion.  Additionally, Pearson VUE, NCSBN’s contracted partner in delivering the NCLEX, concurs with the initial selection of countries.  Pearson VUE believes it can implement testing in the three initial countries according to the timeline and criteria.  Pearson VUE (www.pearsonvue.com) is the electronic testing business of Pearson Education, the world's largest education company, which in turn is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO; LSE: PSON), the international media company.  Pearson's primary operations also include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

International administration of the NCLEX will not contradict or circumvent any current board of nursing process or requirement.  Candidate examination fees for international NCLEX administrations have not been determined, but the fees will represent an increased value to the candidate by substantially reducing the costs associated with travel to another country to test. Current state and territorial NCLEX examination fees will not be raised to subsidize the international testing initiative

President Donna Dorsey summarized by saying, “NCSBN intends to pilot this initiative by offering the NCLEX abroad so nurses potentially interested in becoming a licensed nurse in the U.S. can minimally travel to have a chance at passing NCLEX.”  Dorsey went on to add that NCSBN is responsive to the global community in which health care is increasingly being delivered in and wants to be progressive regarding the issues surrounding the mobility of nurses without compromising public protection for U.S. patients.

NCSBN may remove or add any international testing locations, if any situations warrant that action. Additionally, this initiative is predicated on fully implementing all security policies and procedures currently used to administer the NCLEX examination domestically, at these international locations.  Media inquiries can be directed to above-referenced contact, while non-media inquiries may be directed to the NCLEX information line at 1.866.293.9600 or nclexinfo@ncsbn.org.