THELAKER | 11 Nursing graduates line up at the 2022 ceremony. campus happenings Nursing grads excel, trustees approve LPN program e FLCC nursing class of 2022 had a pass rate of 93 percent on the NCLEX-RN, which stands for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses. e FLCC score exceeded the 63 percent pass rate for New York state associate degree holders and 69 percent rate for that group nationally. Students with a bachelor’s degree in nursing who took the exam in New York had an overall 66 percent pass rate. FLCC has recently updated its curriculum to focus on clinical judgment, a key component of the exam. e Nursing Department has also incorporated more elements to reinforce learning, such as recorded lectures students can revisit, online quizzes and discussions, a professional tutor, and a study and test-taking coach. FLCC graduated 45 nursing students in 2022, meaning 42 passed the national exam last year. e College recently expanded facilities to be able to accept new nursing students in the spring semester. e inaugural spring semester class of 20 students began in January. In addition, the Board of Trustees in January approved the curriculum for a new licensed practical nursing certi cate program. e State University of New York and the state Education Department must sign o on the program before students can enroll. Approval is expected in time for a fall 2024 class. Students who graduate from the certi cate program will receive 14 credits toward the 64-credit registered nursing associate degree program. No, not that chatbot ChatbotGPT may be all the rage, but FLCC has been quietly using arti cial intelligence via a chatbot for just over a year to help students navigate the college landscape. e chatbot is a text messaging service, known to students as Flick. (Flick is the name of the FLCC mascot.) e chatbot is programmed with about 350 common questions and answers. “Students can ask Flick questions like, ‘What are the library hours?’ or ‘When is my bill due?’” explains Sarah Whi en, associate vice president of student a airs. Every other week, the chatbot poses questions to students who have a valid cell phone number on le, about 80 percent of all students registered for a class. Students can opt out of messaging, but fewer than 1 percent do. e bot rst asks students how they are doing and provides multiple choice answers. Based on each student’s response, the chatbot asks further questions to narrow down the speci c problem. For example, if a student reports things aren’t going well, the chatbot asks if the problem is academic, nancial, emotional, etc. “We’re asking about students’ academic and social well-being, physical health, mental health, and nancial well-being. ese questions are tailored and written in a way that is actionable, so that people at the College get the response and can intervene in a much more robust way,” Sarah said. e response rate for the periodic surveys ranges between 50 and 60 percent of students who received a text. e chatbot complements another online tool, TimelyCare, an app that provides free unlimited telehealth and emergency mental health support. All matriculated, meaning enrolled in a degree or certi cate program, full- and part-time students can enroll to use the service. During the 2021-22 academic year, 280 students posted 1,000 visits. Fi y-seven percent were for mental health care. During the fall 2022 semester, 470 students registered and 544 visits transpired. Another 40 visits were logged during winter session. TimelyCare is available to students from the rst day of the term through the rst day of the subsequent term. Essentially a student who is registered for fall can receive coverage until the following fall term begins (12 months).
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