PREDICTING SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN NURSING DEGREE AND SUCCESSFUL PERFORMANCE ON THE NATIONAL COUNCIL LICENSING EXAMINATION FROM PREADMISSION VARIABLES.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 135
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The need for the nursing profession to recruit and retain the most able and promising applicants has been well recognized. In the present economic climate and with the current and projected shortage of professional nurses, this concern has become even more crucial. This study was designed to determine how well present admission criteria to a school of nursing predict subsequent successful program completion and a passing score on the professional licensing examination.

Nine demographic variables and 11 academic variables were used as predictors with the two outcome variables. The ex post facto convenience sample of 192 was taken from the records of 3 years of students who entered an upper division nursing program in a major urban university. Questions answered by the study were: (1) What is the relationship between high school rank, Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, selected preprofessional courses, the preprofessional grade point average, and successful completion of the baccalaureate degree in nursing, as well as the professional licensing examination? (2) What is the relationship between demographic data and successful completion of the baccalaureate degree, as well as successful performance on the professional licensing examination? (3) What combination of preadmission variables best predicts successful completion of the baccalaureate degree and subsequent successful performance on the professional licensing examination?.

Findings indicated that the location of place of residence, the type of education institution which provided the preprofessional courses, the score earned on the SAT-Verbal test, and the grade earned in the course Introduction to Sociology demonstrated the highest predictive power for program completion. The type of preprofessional education institution was highly related to the earning of a passing score on the professional licensing examination as were the courses Chemistry I and Introduction to Sociology, the preprofessional grade point average, and the score earned on the SAT-Verbal test.

Future research indicates a need to test the prediction equation derived from the data and to engage in cooperative and comparative research with other educators in institutions offering the nursing major. The need for a more flexible and creative approach to the preprofessional curriculum is suggested.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-08, Section: B, page: 2261.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1987.

School code: 0055.