Date of Award

Summer 8-1-2002

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Gregory R. Ulm

Second Advisor

Robert Boyd

Third Advisor

Ann Marriner Tomey

Abstract

Nursing programs are increasingly scrutinized for fair and consistent application of program outcome criterions. The passage of the NCLEX-PN licensure examination by program graduates is a measure of student success and is a component of program evaluation standards. It is of paramount importance that nurse educators and administrators create clear admission policies and procedures that offer the greatest opportunity for student success in practical nursing programs, while at the same time remaining cognizant of the needs of the nontraditional student. This was a quantitative research study utilizing archival student data from a six year period. Eleven independent variables were selected for analysis in this study. The variables were contained in three paradigms: demographic characteristics (age, marital status, method of high school completion, presence of dependents, employment status, and financial status); pre-entry variables (Lake Land College basic assessment battery, remediation class requirements, NLN-pre-PN assess score); and programmatic variables (Introductory Practical Nursing Course; PNC050, and certification as a basic nurse assistant) as predictors of Mosby Assess Test scores in research question one and secondly as predictors ofNCLEX-PN licensure rates for first attempt for question two. Lake Land Community College student database search determined 13 7 practical nursing graduates from years 1996 to 2001 would provide the population for this study. All 137 student cases were identified and independent variable values recorded for analyses by multiple regression to determine the relationship of all the independent variables on the Mosby Assess Test score. The final sample of 136 graduates utilized in the multiple regression analysis resulted in three variables of NLN pre-PN test scores, age, and Introduction to Nursing course PNC050 significantly predicted the Mosby Assess Test score. The sample size was reduced to accommodate the small number of students over a six year period of time that failed NCLEX-PN on first attempt. The final sample size for the logistic regression was 51. The results indicated the probability of passing NCLEX-PN licensure examination without the predictor variables was 67%. Age entered as the predictor variable increased the ability of the model to detect failures on state board examination. However, overall prediction rate remained the same. The findings of this study have impHcations for educators, program directors, and students.

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