SELECTED ACADEMIC AND NONACADEMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF FEMALE GRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS WHO HAVE COMPLETED THEIR GRADUATE NURSING PROGRAM IN PENNSYLVANIA IN 1988 (NURSING).
Contributors: Temple University.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 131
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Higher.
Description: The major purpose of this research study was to identify selected academic characteristics and selected nonacademic characteristics including life events scores of female graduate nursing students in Pennsylvania in 1988. The literature suggests that the numbers of nursing students completing graduate programs is insufficient to meet future health care demands. In order to enhance the numbers of successful students, it was important to identify those characteristics related to completion of the program.

The population of interest for this study was 322 graduate nursing students who completed their graduate program in Pennsylvania in May 1988. Questionnaires were returned from 196 of the graduate students with a sixty-one percent response rate. Frequencies, percentages, z-scores, t-tests, and chi-square analysis were performed on the data.

Academic characteristics identified in the population included the admission characteristics of UGPA, GRE verbal score, GRE quantitative scores, type of admission, and years of nursing experience prior to admission. Program characteristics were also identified including enrollment status, specialty area of study, functional area of concentration, and the presence of a thesis or comprehensives examination.

Nonacademic characteristics included employment, demographic, and economic characteristics. The presence of significant life events was also identified within the last twelve months of graduate study and a stress value calculated using the Social Readjustment Rating Scale by Holmes and Rahe.

The researcher concluded that a variety of academic and nonacademic characteristics were evident in graduates in Pennsylvania including age, marital status, number of children, employment status, income, areas and function of employment, and primary nursing education. Total life events scores indicated that twenty-eight percent of the graduate students in this population perceived high levels of stress. Life events related to financial issues and work related issues appeared to be common in these graduates.

Further research of the characteristics related to success is suggested. The researcher further suggests that an investigation be done of those factors that might support the graduate nursing student toward successful completion of a graduate program of study.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-07, Section: B, page: 2849.

Thesis (ED.D.)--TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, 1989.

School code: 0225.