AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF ACADEMICALLY HIGH RISK STUDENTS IN A BACCALAUREATE NURSING PROGRAM (ATTRITION, PREDICTORS OF SUCCESS, REMEDIATION, ABILITY GROUPS).
Contributors: University of Alabama.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 100
Subjects: Education, Administration.
Description: The study was designed to describe and analyze the achievement of students who were admitted to the upper division of a Baccalaureate of Science with a major in nursing (BSN) program. More specifically, students meeting study criteria were placed in three ability groups, ranging from high to low academic achievement.

Data were analyzed from 271 students admitted to a state-supported BSN program from January 1977 through January 1982. Each student would have been eligible to take the State Board Test Pool Examination (SBTPE) on or before July 1984.

A multiple discriminant analysis was performed which examined five independent variables and their relationship to the dependent variable of passing the SBTPE on the first attempt. This analysis revealed, in order of significance, the following predictors of success on the SBTPE: ACT score, success on high school chemistry and/or algebra, not having to remediate chemistry and/or algebra at the college level, and high school grade point average (GPA). The variable of the college GPA earned prior to entry into the nursing major had no predictive significance.

A comparison was made also between the three student ability groups on achievement variables after entry into the nursing major. The GPA earned in nursing courses, the need for remediation of nursing courses, and the pass/fail ratio on the SBTPE of each group were considered. An analysis of variance revealed a correlation between the GPA in the nursing major and the categorized ability group. Furthermore, the Chi-square test of independence showed that the lower the ability group, the more likely the student would be to repeat nursing courses and to be unsuccessful on the SBTPE.

Both the rate and causes of attrition by ability group were studied also. The academically high risk student had the highest attrition rate and also the highest rate of attrition for academic reasons.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-03, Section: A, page: 0738.

Thesis (ED.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, 1985.

School code: 0004.