Identification and analysis of entry level characteristics that predict success on nursing board licensure: study of a selected vocational nursing program in Texas

摘要

This study investigated 18 discrete demographic, academic, and experientiallearner entry characteristics of graduates from a selected vocational nursing program todetermine which characteristics were relevant in predicting success on the statelicensure examination, NCLEX-PN. An analysis of these characteristics contributed tothe development of a model designed to more effectively counsel and adviseprospective vocational nursing students in community college settings.The population for this study consisted of students who graduated from thelicensed vocational nursing program at Kingwood College during a four-year period,from the nine classes beginning January 1997 through January 2001. During this time,there were 240 graduates but one file was eliminated because of incompleteinformation; thus the resulting study size was reduced to 239. This retrospective studyutilized archival data collected from academic records.Chi square analysis suggested statistical significance between six of theindependent variables studied and the single dependent variable of successfully passingthe NCLEX-PN on the first attempt. The six independent variables that demonstrated statistical significance were ethnicity, method of high school completion, pre-nursinggrade point average, reading assessment score on the TASP Test, developmentalreading coursework, and developmental writing coursework.Additional analysis through logistic regression suggested that the independentvariables of ethnicity, method of high school completion, pre-nursing grade pointaverage, and reading assessment score on the TASP Test were the best combination ofpredictive measures for passing the NCLEX-PN on the first attempt.