NLN NEX case studies
NLN NEX · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The NLN NEX is a standardized exit assessment produced by the National League for Nursing and taken by students nearing completion of a prelicensure nursing program. Faculty use the results as one source of evidence about a candidate's readiness for the NCLEX licensure examination and as feedback for curriculum review; students experience it as a computer-delivered, proctored test scheduled near the end of the program. It is an assessment tool, not a license, and it does not substitute for NCLEX. Content is organized into four broad areas: safe and effective care environment, health promotion and maintenance, psychosocial integrity, and physiological integrity. The NLN NEX case studies are 5 cases and about 3,967 words.
1Six Patients, Two Assistants, Twenty Minutes Behind
You are the charge nurse on a 32-bed medical-surgical unit at 07:00. Staffing is you, one LPN, and one unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP); there is no unit secretary, and report ran 20 minutes late.
800 words, about 4 min2A1c 6.2% at a Blood Pressure Check
A 52-year-old woman comes to a community health fair "just for a blood pressure check." She works 12-hour night shifts in a warehouse, has no primary care provider, and is uninsured but eligible for a sliding-scale clinic. Her BP today is 138/86, repeated 136/84.
719 words, about 4 min3The Man Who Was Independent Last Week
An 82-year-old man was admitted 36 hours ago with a urinary tract infection and is receiving IV ceftriaxone. His daughter reports he lived alone, drove, managed his own medications, and balanced his checkbook.
773 words, about 4 min4The Numbers That Keep Moving the Wrong Way
A 74-year-old woman is postoperative day 1 from open reduction and internal fixation of a left hip fracture after a fall at home. She takes metoprolol for hypertension.
870 words, about 4 min5Two Minutes, Two Medication Problems
You are the evening charge nurse on a 28-bed unit. At 20:50 two things land on you at once.
805 words, about 4 min