Improvements on the nursing licensure exam last year means five Philadelphia area nursing programs, including one at Widener University in Chester, will be taken off of a state watch list, writes Abraham Gutman for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

That means the Widener program, as well as nursing programs at Delaware County Community College, Thomas Jefferson University, Temple University, and Gwynedd-Mercy University, can operate without special oversight from the nursing board.

“Programs are seeing a return to their pre-COVID scores,” said Anne Krouse, the dean of the school of nursing at Widener.

The programs successfully exceeded a state requirement that at least 80 percent of their graduates pass the exam the first time, with Widener showing a 90 percent pass rate.

Scores dipped in 2022 below the 80 percent pass rate, but educators attributed the drop to lost learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest test scores have rebounded, helped also by a new exam format that better shows how prepared graduates are to work with patients.

There is still pandemic fallout, however, with students arriving to college less prepared, especially in areas like math.

Find out more about the new format in the licensure exam and other factors affecting nursing test scores in The Philadelphia Inquirer.