December 2, 2025
East County Independent Monitor
For the first time ever, Florida now ranks dead last in the United States for first-time NCLEX pass rates – the all-important licensing exam every nurse must pass to practice.
The numbers are brutal:
- Florida: 83.12% pass rate (2024–2025 data)
- National average: 89.4%
- States like New Hampshire and Vermont: above 96%
That 6-point gap translates into thousands of would-be nurses who studied here, took on massive debt, but are currently barred from working at Brandon Regional, South Florida Baptist, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel, or any other hospital in the Tampa Bay area.Why This Should Worry Every Resident of Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk CountiesFlorida already faces a critical nursing shortage. The Florida Hospital Association projects we’ll be short more than 59,000 nurses by 2035. When our own nursing schools are graduating fewer licensed nurses than almost anywhere else in America, the math gets ugly fast:
- Longer ER wait times
- Closed hospital beds
- Burned-out nurses handling even heavier patient loads
- Higher medical error risk
What Went Wrong?
State investigators and the Board of Nursing point to a perfect storm:
- Rapid growth of for-profit nursing programs with questionable quality
- Inadequate clinical placement sites
- Some schools accepting students with little realistic chance of passing the NCLEX
- Outdated or inconsistent curriculum that doesn’t align with the new Next Generation NCLEX format
The Coming Crackdown
Tallahassee is no longer looking the other way. Bills already filed for the 2026 legislative session include:
- Automatic probation or closure for programs with three consecutive years below 80% pass rates
- Mandatory public “report cards” for every nursing program in Florida
- New scholarship and loan-forgiveness incentives tied directly to NCLEX success
- Increased funding for high-performing public college programs (think Hillsborough Community College and Polk State)
The East County Angle
We have several nursing programs right here in our coverage area. Some are excelling; others are on the state’s watch list. Over the next few weeks, East County Independent Monitor will publish a local scorecard showing exactly how each school in Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk performed on the 2025 NCLEX – because families deserve to know before they (or their kids) sign those tuition checks.
Bottom Line
This isn’t just a “nursing school problem.” It’s a patient-safety and access-to-care crisis that will hit every clinic, hospital, and nursing home from Plant City to Lakeland to Wesley Chapel.We’ll keep following this story closely and bring you updates as lawmakers, colleges, and hospitals respond.Bookmark this page and follow East County Independent Monitor for the most detailed local coverage of the Florida NCLEX crisis and how it affects you.Because when it comes to healthcare in East Hillsborough and the surrounding counties, we’re the source that actually lives here and digs deeper.
– The East County IM Team
https://eastcountyim.com/florida-nclex-crisis
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