The United States continues to be affected by a severe, long-standing nursing shortage that is not projected to resolve within the next 10 or more years. Unsuccessful passage of the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) among graduate nurses remains one of several key contributors to the nursing shortage. The goal of this study was to identify if either cumulative fall semester GPA; the overall prenursing science, mathematics, and English GPA; type of high school background; TOEFL score; clinical pass or fail; and on-time program completion best predicted passage of NCLEX-RN. Archived records from the academic years of 2006-2010 of students/graduates of a small, private BSN program were analyzed. A nonconcurrent, prospective design of secondary data was guided by the theoretical implications of the Seidman retention formula that surmises that early identification of academic problems is a necessary precursor to implementations that promote academic success. Significant, positive correlations were found between GPA of prenursing courses and achievement in clinical courses and on-time nursing program completion. Forward and backward, logistic regression procedures revealed that clinical performance was the strongest predictor of NCLEX-RN success but with an inverse relationship. Implications for positive social change include retention of BSN students to improve graduation rates. This ultimately will foster achievement on the NCLEX-RN, resulting in more graduates will be able to competently serve the health care needs of individuals and communities and alleviation of the nursing shortage.

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