The National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) is a test for licensure of nurses in the United States. There are two types of this exam: the NCLEX-RN and the NCLEX-PN.
These exams are owned and developed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). The NCSBN administers these exams on behalf of its member boards, which are boards of nursing in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the four U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
To protect the public, each board of nursing requires that every candidate for licensure pass the appropriate National Council Licensure Examination, the CLEX-RN for registered nurses and the NCLEX-PN for nurse practitioners. The NCLEX is designed to measure the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to practice nursing safely and effectively at the entry level.
The National Council Licensure Examinations are offered in the form of Computer Adaptive Tests (CAT) and are currently administered by Pearson Virtual University Projects (Pearson VUE) at the Pearson Professional Centers (PPC) network.
