INTEGRATED SKILLS REINFORCEMENT IN PROFESSIONAL NURSING DEVELOPMENT: A COURSE FOR ADULT LEARNERS IN A BACCALAUREATE PROGRAM.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 249
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Education, Adult and Continuing.; Education, Bilingual and Multicultural.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purposes of this study were to describe the effects of the integrated skills reinforcement (ISR) method on the writing skills and transitional issues for beginning registered nurse (RN) students in a baccalaureate program. The institutional setting was an upper division public urban university whose mission is to educate health care professionals.

Convenience sampling was used to select the subjects who were students enrolled in the two sections of Professional Nursing Development in the Fall, 1991 semester. There were 42 in the ISR class and 45 in the Comparison Class.

Baseline assessments on the reading, writing, listening and speaking skills of both sampling groups were conducted before implementation of ISR. The strategies for reinforcement of the basic skills were included in both a learning guide for the students and a teaching guide for faculty which were developed in advance. The strategic activity that was measured after ISR was writing ability and a nonequivalent control group pretest/post-test design was used.

Data were collected from the baseline assessments, the pretest/post-test holistic scores for writing, the final examination and course grades, the responses to the structured individual interviews and faculty observations. Percentages, paired T-test and T-test for independent means were used to analyze the data.

The findings showed that ISR was effective in facilitating the transition of the RN students from work to student roles as shown by their final examination and course grades and positive course evaluation in the individual interviews. The paired T-test showed a significant growth at the.01 probability level in the writing skills of the students after ISR.

A longitudinal study should be done to evaluate whether the effect of ISR continues. The sampling technique should include randomization to control the variables.

The implication of this study for higher education includes the applicability of ISR to courses in undergraduate programs of Nursing. In addition, ISR may serve as a focus for faculty development programs in traditional institutions with adult culturally diverse nontraditional students.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-05, Section: A, page: 1417.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1992.

School code: 0055.