PREDICTIVE VALIDITY OF SELECTED ACHIEVEMENT VARIABLES RELATIVE TO A CRITERION OF PASSING OR FAILING THE NATIONAL COUNCIL LICENSURE EXAMINATION (NCLEX) FOR NURSING STUDENTS IN A TWO-YEAR ASSOCIATE DEGREE PROGRAM.
Contributors: University of Southern California.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 63
Subjects: Education, Tests and Measurements.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Community College.; Education, Health.
Description: Purpose. There has been a quite limited amount of research on academic predictors of the success on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) for student nurses in the associate degree program. For a group of approximately 350 nursing students in a two-year associate degree program, the major purpose of this investigation was to obtain estimates of validity coefficients relative to a criterion of passing or failing the NCLEX of two types of variables: (a) grades received in each of 18 courses (eight theory courses in nursing, six laboratory courses in nursing, and four biology-oriented courses) as well as in unweighted composites of nursing laboratory and nursing theory courses and (b) grade point averages (GPAs) earned prior to admission to the nursing program and in the community college itself. A secondary purpose was directed toward ascertaining from a factor analysis of intercorrelations of the grades in nursing theory and nursing laboratory courses whether a differentiation could be made between the performance requirements in these two kinds of courses.

Conclusions. (1) Indicators of course achievement in high school or in college prior to admission to the nursing program appear to have little, if any, validity in forecasting which nursing students will obtain a passing score on the NCLEX. (2) Although only modest at best in its validity, a GPA earned in a composite of didactic or theory-oriented courses seems to offer the greatest promise in identifying those students most likely to succeed in the NCLEX. (3) Laboratory courses in the nursing curriculum are weak indicators of future success on the NCLEX probably because of the strong emphasis on facts and principles of nursing in both the theory courses and the NCLEX itself. (4) Even the addition of achievement indicators in laboratory courses or in courses prior to admission to the nursing program contributes nothing to improving the accuracy of prediction of success on the NCLEX. (5) There is substantial evidence that the learning experiences encountered in theory or didactic courses and those in laboratory courses are quite distinct.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-01, Section: A, page: 0182.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, 1995.

School code: 0208.