A COMPARISON OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND SUCCESS ON THE NCLEX-RN OF TRANSFER LPNS AND GENERIC NURSING STUDENTS IN THE ASSOCIATE DEGREE NURSING PROGRAM AT WOR-WIC TECH COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
Contributors: University of Maryland, College Park.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 105
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study determines whether generic nursing students and transfer Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), who were integrated into an Associate in Arts Degree nursing program, were comparable in academic performance and success on the NCLEX-RN examinations. Seven null hypotheses were proposed, stating no significant difference existed between the two groups in demographic data, pre-admission data, academic achievement in sophomore cognitive measurements, and national standardized tests upon completion.

The study compared the group by age, sex, ethnic origin, and marital status. Other variables included passage rate of NCLEX-PN, American College Test Assessment Subtests and Composite scores, RN-level NLN Achievement Test percentiles of Nursing Care I, Nursing Care II, Natural Science, Psychiatric Nursing, Diet Therapy, and Pharmacology, sophomore-level nursing grades, and NCLEX-RN scores.

The sample population (N = 145) included all students admitted to the sophomore year of the ADN program at Wor-Wic Tech Community College from 1981-1985.

The hypotheses were tested against the collected data by calculating the Chi-square or t -test statistic using the subprograms CROSSTABS and T-TEST in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS-X). The two groups were compared against a standard confidence level of 0.80.

Major conclusions drawn are: (1) generic nursing students attained statistically higher mean scores on NCLEX-PN and NCLEX-RN examinations, (2) generic nursing students had statistically higher mean scores on all sub-tests and composite results on the ACT Assessment, (3) of the six RN-level NLN Achievement tests studied, three showed generic students scored significantly higher mean percentiles--Natural Science, Nursing Care I, and Psychiatric Nursing, (4) the three other RN-level NLN achievement test results, Diet Therapy, Nursing Care II, and Pharmacology, showed no significant difference, (5) on only one of the achievement tests, Pharmacology, did the transfer LPNs show a higher mean percentile, (6) the attrition rate during the sophomore year showed no significant difference between groups which was low $-7.6$%, (7) grades for sophomore nursing courses showed no significant difference between the two groups, and (8) demographic data showed the groups to be similar in age, marital status, and gender but statistically different in ethnic origin.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-11, Section: A, page: 2815.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK, 1987.

School code: 0117.