Date of Award
2003
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Frederick C. Kintzer
Committee Member
Alan K. Cohen
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
academic prerequisites, admission criteria, admission policy, associate degree nursing schools, at-risk students, attrition, biology courses, campus counselors, community college nursing program, demographic traits, faculty, HESI exit exam, math, NCLEX-RN, nursing education, Nursing Skills Course, nursing shortage, passage rate, preadmission, preadmission test scores, pre-entrance exam requirements, reading, remediation, retention, science, student attrition, teaching methodology, test item writing, testing, Texas, unit test review sessions, weighting of admission criteria, new graduates, nursing program completion, qualitative data, remediation process, student records, curriculum evaluation, academic performance indicators, nursing student success, nursing workforce development
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to seek ways to improve the NCLEX-RN passage rate and to lower the attrition rate in a community college nursing program. The program had a significant problem because of the decrease in passage rate of the NCLEX-RN by graduating students and an increase in student attrition. Expost facto data were collected from 213 former nursing student records to compare the independent variables of preadmission test scores, academic prerequisites grades, demographic traits, HESI exit exam scores, and grades in the Nursing Skills Course to the completion of the nursing program and passage of the NCLEX-RN. A case appropriate correlation coefficient was used for the 36 research questions related to the expost facto data. Qualitative data were collected from interviewing forty-five directors, of associate degree nursing schools in the state of Texas, to determine strategies being used to improve attrition and passage of NCLEX-RN. Qualitative data were collected from interviewing 10 full-time faculty and 30 new graduates to determine strategies that could be used to decrease attrition and increase the passage rate of the NCLEX-RN in the nursing program.
The findings linked the academic variables of two biology courses and three components of the preadmission test (math, science, and reading) to the completion of the nursing program. A relationship was found between one biology course, the preadmission test science component, the HESI exit exam score, and the Nursing Skills Course to the passage of the NCLEX-RN. Qualitative data indicated pre-entrance exam requirements, campus counselors, remediation, faculty, test item writing, and teaching methodology as instrumental in completion of the program and passage of the NCLEX-RN.
Recommendations from the findings included reassessment of the admission policy concerning the weighting of admission criteria as well as the use of preadmission criteria to identify at-risk students early in the program. Development of a remediation process, evaluation of testing throughout the curriculum, evaluation of the use of faculty, unit test review sessions, and a replication of this study were further recommendations.