Hopefully you’re singing along to the tune of “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?” as you read this blog. An impromptu “car concert” or humming a quick tune always helps lighten my mood (as long as no one is listening) whenever I’m confronted with change. On Thursday, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) issued a press release stating that the NCLEX® will effectively “go green” beginning in 2014.
These paperless changes will be announced and implemented in three different parts starting in early 2014 with the registration phase. Later on this year, NSCBN will announce “impacts to exam day processes and impacts to processes after the exam.”
We, at Kaplan, always encourage you to reach out to the NCSBN or your local state board of Nursing for questions relating to the NCLEX or the registration process, but we thought it would be nice if I summarized the changes for you. In short, they are as follows:
1.) The following documents will no longer be released in hard-copy or printed form:
2.) The NCSBN will also stop publishing the Candidate Bulletin At-A-Glance in both electronic and hard copy formats due to enhancements made to the aforementioned documents. (Be sure and save the bulletin as a PDF prior to beginning your New Year’s Eve celebrations.)
3.) NCSBN will no longer accept money order, certified check, or cashier check payments effective January 1, 2014. Beginning on that date, all candidates and third-parties must register and pay for the NCLEX through the Pearson VUE website which will only accept credit and debit card payments.
This change affects two methods of registration that will only be available through December 31, 2013. They are for candidates and third-parties who register online, then print and send in their confirmation form, along with their paper-based payment, and for candidates and third-parties who register by completing a paper, Scantron registration form and send that in along with their paper-based payment.
4.) NCSBN will stop printing the paper Scantron registration form mentioned in Item 3; effective January 1st registration for the NCLEX becomes an online-only process.
A decommissioned Pope brand paper making machine.
NCSBN will release additional information about the paperless changes in October 2013, so be on the lookout for that announcement, as well as another update from your friends at “Educators in Nursing.” In the meantime, I wouldn’t worry too much about the changes. The majority of students whom I meet seem to prefer paying for their Kaplan NCLEX resources with our Installment Billing payment plan, which spreads the cost of their tuition out over three months and auto-charges their credit/debit card when each payment is due. In addition, Kaplan Nursing went green approximately a year ago when we transitioned our Content Review Guides and Basics books to an eBook platform. While some students still prefer to buy the hard copy through our partnership with Amazon.com, students have reported that they love the built-in functionality (like highlighting, definitions, note-taking, and searching for key words) that the eBook offers. I’m sure that several years from now, when books have gone the way of the dinosaurs, we’ll all look back and think how silly we were for worrying about such a change. (At least that’s what I keep telling myself.)
