Karen Penrod remembers helping a first-semester Grand Canyon University nursing school student who was struggling.
“Bottom line, she was homesick,” said the nursing success coach, whose focus is to help students prepare for their National Council Licensure Examination. It’s the standardized test they must pass to start practicing as a registered nurse.
The university’s College of Nursing and Health Care Professions has been laser-focused over the past decade on boosting students’ chances of passing the exam through its NCLEX Success Program, like Penrod was doing for that homesick student.
She had moved from California to Arizona, didn’t know anyone and failed to pass the first semester of nursing school.
It took her two tries to get back in, and Penrod was determined to help her with success strategies, time management – and, of course, encouragement.
“She just needed someone to talk to. … I remember, one day, she was so stressed out. I said to her, ‘What makes you happy?’
“She said, ‘The sunset.’ And I said, ‘Yes. Arizona has beautiful sunsets. Build that into your day.’”
That student knew immediately where to go: The top of one of the university’s parking garages. It’s where many at GCU congregate to watch the sunset.
“That is how I got that student to relax and to bring God into her life to get through,” Penrod said.
A plan for success
A little more than 10 years ago, GCU’s nursing program was not where it is today; it had fallen below the state’s NCLEX pass rate threshold.
But the college had a plan.
A central part of it was to create a position for an NCLEX Success Program manager, so the college brought on Amy Leach, who had worked as a clinical manager for Phoenix Children’s Hospital and was a program manager for Maricopa Community Colleges.
Leach first worked with GCU as a faculty educator with Elsevier, known for publishing academic journals and medical reference texts. Her expertise with NCLEX preparation, the HESI exam (used to assess a student’s likelihood of passing the NCLEX), data analysis and the use of digital products positioned her to take on her new role at GCU.
When she arrived in fall 2016, she was the only NCLEX Success Program staff in the college and hit the ground running to build the program.
Leach met with students for one-on-one coaching, offered suggestions about curriculum, helmed test-taking strategies, invited faculty to sit in on coaching sessions and analyzed HESI results.
“They were needing somebody to help refocus efforts – to help students be successful with NCLEX … and then just looking at, what do the students need?” she said.
By the first quarter of 2021, in the midst of COVID-19, GCU students scored a 100% first-time pass rate on the rigorous exam, meaning all the students who took it passed it on the first try.
Nursing faculty couldn’t remember the last time that happened. The college’s dean, Dr. Lisa Smith, said first-time pass rates began to improve quickly once program changes were implemented. But hitting 100% meant they had developed and sustained a high-quality nursing program.
“It’s been great to see as we have grown our enrollment that we continue to experience pass rates above the national average at all of our sites,” Smith said.
It was an unbelievable turnaround.
Program expansion
In 2020, GCU opened its first hybrid accelerated BSN satellite sites, where students – mostly adult learners who are re-careering – complete their didactic learning online, then go to these sites to complete their hands-on learning for a chance to become a nurse in as little as 16 months. The goal is to open 40 such sites across the country to meet the demand for nurses in the midst of a nationwide nursing shortage.
That expansion meant also expanding the NCLEX Success Program.
“Our pass rates were looking really good, so Dr. Smith asked me to just keep that going,” Leach said.
Since the NCLEX Success Program’s implementation, the university’s NCLEX first-time pass rates improved significantly, with numbers routinely exceeding statewide averages.
On the main campus in 2025, for example, the first-time pass rate on the exam was 97.05%. Nationally, the number was 86.7%, and in Arizona, 89.9%.
The nursing program is seeing success, too, in the ABSN program. Students at the Tucson site, for one, achieved 100% for seven consecutive quarters, ending at a 98% first-time pass rate in 2025. Students in Sandy, Utah, ended at a 100% first-time pass rate that year, and the West Valley site achieved 94.4% by year’s end.
Leach, who’s now the executive director of NCLEX Success, went from the only NCLEX Success Program staff to now managing a team of NCLEX Success educators covering all locations.
If a student has a situation where they step away for a while and they come back to it for a second attempt, we don't expire. We're still here for them, and we're happy to support them.
Amy Leach, executive director of NCLEX Success
All students in Level 4, who are in the final semester of the prelicensure BSN and ABSN program and are getting ready for their predictor exam, the HESI exit exam, are assigned an NCLEX Success manager for focused one-on-one coaching.
And NCLEX Success coaches, such as Penrod, work with students in Levels 1 through 3, the first three semesters of nursing school, who are referred to them by faculty. The coach role was created, Leach said, because of the unique challenges of ABSN students who spend a lot of time learning alone at home.
A unique approach
One of the things that stands out about GCU’s NCLEX Success Program is that preparing students to pass their licensure exam begins on day one of the program and follows them through to graduation and beyond, if necessary.
Throughout the four semesters of the program, students take practice standardized exams each semester and receive guidance from their NCLEX coach on what their score means about their mastery level of the content. This approach allows the student to focus on areas where content knowledge, critical thinking and clinical reasoning need to be strengthened.
GCU’s NCLEX Success managers stay with students through graduation, until they pass the licensure exam, regardless of how many times they take the test.
“That’s something unique for GCU,” Leach said. “We stick with our students until they pass. … If a student has a situation where they step away for a while and they come back to it for a second attempt, we don’t expire. We’re still here for them, and we’re happy to support them.”
Beyond that, Kim Radcliffe, a GCU senior NCLEX Success manager based in Morehead City, N.C., said what also makes the NCLEX Success Program unique is, “I think our passion is not pass rates; our passion is the student. I think that makes the difference, and they know it.
“We really look much deeper than just the surface or test grades or things like that. We look at confidence level. We look at anxiety, test-taking issues, because that’s usually what the problem is.”
Added Leach, “We’ve actually seen – I don’t think I’m saying a falsehood if I say we’ve seen an increase in that since COVID – an increase in anxiety, self-doubt, imposter syndrome.”
Radcliffe said she had just spent an hour with a graduate whose anxiety was soaring.
“I’m like, ‘We need to meet.’ I just sent her a link and we jumped on. It wasn’t scheduled – and that’s how we all operate. We’re right there for them whenever they need us.
“We spent an hour bringing that anxiety down, and so I felt good when we hung up. She felt good when she hung up.
“She’s testing tomorrow.”
Kierra Hess, an NCLEX Success manager based in Mount Pleasant, S.C., said she knows her role is different from any other faculty role.
“Being able to walk alongside them through their journey to passing NCLEX is very rewarding. … To know they can come back to us for that support, and we’re the cheerleader that some of them do truly need, and the person that’s in their corner when no one else is in their corner, is really, truly unique.”
Added Leach, every person on the NCLEX Success Program team, “They’re nurses first, right? So when Kierra talks about walking alongside of them, they (students) also end up with a mentor.”
They answer questions about where to apply for work, guide them when they get two job offers, and, yes, even talk about taking a break to watch a sunset. “ … So this is another value that this team provides – that support of somebody who has walked in their shoes.”
The NCLEX Success Program at GCU has spilled over to the athletic training program, which added a BOC success coach to help athletic training students prepare for their Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer Exam.
The first-time pass rate on that exam had dropped to 83% a few years ago, and after adding the BOC success coach, that number rose to 100% for students taking the exam in April, May and June 2024.
Leach emphasizes how the NCLEX Success Program shows how the university stands firm in its commitment to student success.
“There is no question. … They (Leach’s team of NCLEX educators) love working for this university because of what they CAN do with these students. I mean, it’s just such a wonderful thing that I’m allowed to do this and they’ve allowed me to assemble this wonderful team. And we will grow as the (nursing) program continues to grow.”
GCU Manager of Internal Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected].
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Related content:
Phoenix Business Journal: GCU taking a shot at dire nursing shortage through its nationwide ABSN program
GCU Communications/Public Relations: Grand Canyon University announces new Associate of Science in Pre-Nursing degree, expanding nursing education even further
GCU News: GCU expands accelerated nursing program to St. Louis
