PREDICTORS OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS OF UPPER DIVISION NURSING STUDENTS.
Contributors: University of Colorado, Boulder.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 152
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: There has been a rapid growth in the number of upper division nursing programs in response to an increasing number of associate degree and diploma nurses pursuing their baccalaureate degree in nursing. Academic advisors have few tools for establishing admission criteria for these students.

The purposes of this ex post facto study were to ascertain: how the cumulative grade point average (GPA) of associate degree nursing graduates from junior/community colleges compares to the cumulative GPA attained at Metropolitan State College, the correlation between academic success, defined as GPA, in upper division nursing courses of educationally mobile nurses and each of the predictor variables, and the best multivariate prediction equation for achievement in upper division nursing courses. The study examined 15 educational and personal predictor variables.

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient indicated little or no linear relationship (r = $-.087)$ between the cumulative GPA of associate degree nursing graduates from junior/community colleges and the cumulative GPA attained at Metropolitan State College. The coefficient was not significant at the.10 level.

A correlation matrix indicated many of the predictor variables were positively correlated at the.05 level of significance with academic success in upper division nursing courses. Three American College Testing Proficiency Examination Program (ACT/PEP) examinations had the highest correlations with academic success in upper division nursing courses. The ACT/PEP psychiatric/mental health nursing examination score was the most highly correlated variable (r =.621) and accounted for 38% of the total variation of academic success in upper division nursing courses.

Stepwise multiple regression revealed that the best predictive equation of academic success in upper division nursing courses at the.10 level of significance included the following variables added in this order of importance: ACT/PEP psychiatric/mental health nursing examination score; length of time lapse since completing the associate degree in nursing; age when entering the upper division nursing program; GPA in lower division nursing courses; and the ACT/PEP maternal and child nursing, associate level, examination score. The total variation explained by these five predictor variables was 55% of the total variation of academic success in upper division nursing courses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-08, Section: A, page: 1998.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER, 1987.

School code: 0051.