PREDICTING SUCCESS AND FAILURE ON NEW YORK REGENTS' CLINICAL PERFORMANCE IN NURSING EXAMINATION.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 146
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This research study assessed the relationship between select independent variables and overall performance on New York Regents' Clinical Performance in Nursing Examination. The primary purpose for this line of study was to identify factors that were associated with satisfactory and unsatisfactory performance on the clinical examination. Additional concern was in determining the relationship of test anxiety to the overall findings. The independent variables under study were trait anxiety, test anxiety, nursing degree program, nursing/health care experience, nursing knowledge, general intelligence, age, pulse rate, New York State residence, and number of times taking the examination. Given the nature of the research question and the purposes to be accomplished, a descriptive multiple correlational study was designed.

Subjects in the study were 87 volunteers who came from the population of associate and baccalaureate candidates enrolled in New York Regents External Degrees in Nursing Program. All subjects were scheduled to take the mandatory Clinical Performance in Nursing Examination during the time of this study.

Data were collected on the variables under study using several instruments and, once recoded, were subjected to an SPSS computer program analysis. Discriminant analysis was the principal means for answering the research question. However, additional analyses involving t tests, analyses of variance, crosstabulations, and correlation coefficients were used to help achieve the purposes outlined. All findings were tested statistically at the .05 level of significance.

Given the overall results reported in the study, the following conclusions were drawn. The independent variables of degree program enrollment, nursing knowledge, state of residence, and nursing/health care experience could individually be used to differentiate subjects in this study who passed and failed the Clinical Performance in Nursing Examination. Collectively, the variables of nursing knowledge, pulse rate, age, test anxiety, nursing degree program, state of residence, general intelligence, and test center could be used with 77% accuracy to predict the performance groups.

Overall, the findings revealed that individually and in combination select independent variables could differentiate significantly between those who passed and failed the clinical examination. An explanation for the group separation, however, could not be supported strongly by test anxiety theory.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-12, Section: B, page: 4187.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1985.

School code: 0055.