New Northwestern College nursing graduates record 100 percent board exam first-time pass rate

Northwestern College’s 2025 nursing graduates have recorded a 100% first-time pass rate on the NCLEX-RN board exam. In addition, this is the sixth consecutive year that Northwestern’s nursing graduates have compiled a 100% pass rate.

“Our students’ continued success shows that they value their education,” says Dr. Karie Stamer, associate professor of nursing and nursing department chair. “Northwestern recruits top-notch students, students who have a true vision for what they’re called to do in life. They are very invested in the big-picture outcome of what it is to be a nurse, not just the skills they’ll be providing, and they strive to use their gifts for how God has called them.”

Stamer cites several other factors that contribute to Northwestern’s consistently high nursing pass rate: “Our faculty are excited to meet students where they are and take them to the next level of learning. We have amazing clinical partners who walk alongside them through the learning process. And we’re very fortunate to have some of the latest technology to help provide learning that closely resembles practice.”

The most recent technological additions to the nursing department include a mobile high-fidelity pediatric simulator and a virtual reality simulation system, funded by a $130,000 grant from the Carver Charitable Trust. The college’s nursing arts laboratory, located in the state-of-the-art DeWitt Family Science Center, includes numerous high-fidelity simulators and patient rooms, a flexible learning space with eight treatment bays, IV training arms and other equipment, a hospital-based computerized medication system, and an electronic health record simulation program.

Stamer says Northwestern nursing graduates are highly sought after. “At the start of last school year, nine of our 25 seniors had already been offered a full-time job, and all had job offers by February. Employers appreciate students’ work ethic, the knowledge they bring, and their confidence in their skills.”

Northwestern’s 2025 nursing graduates are working at Avera McKennan Hospital and Sanford Health System in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Creighton University Medical Center – Bergan Mercy and Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska; Henry Ford St. John Hospital in Detroit, Michigan; Lakes Regional Healthcare, Spirit Lake, Iowa; Orange City Area Health System; and Pella Regional Hospital in Pella, Iowa, among others. The alumni are serving in cardiopulmonary, intensive care, labor and delivery, medical-surgical, neonatal intensive care, oncology, pediatric acute care and postpartum units.

Northwestern’s BSN degree is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, approved by the Iowa Board of Nursing and ranked #3 in Iowa by RNCareers.org.

Northwestern’s BSN program will prepare you to be a healer in a hurting world. With more than 700 hours of clinical experience in both rural and urban healthcare settings, multiple opportunities to learn by serving through healthcare-related mission trips, and a state-of-the-art nursing laboratory in the DeWitt Family Science Center, Northwestern’s program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and approved by the Iowa Board of Nursing.