| This ex post facto study was conducted to determine whether grades in selected nursing courses, ethnicity, gender, age or duration in the nursing program were predictors of performance on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) for graduates of baccalaureate programs. Three Southeastern baccalaureate schools of nursing participated in the study. Pearson product moment correlations, chi-square, multiple regression and discriminant analysis were used to analyze the descriptive data. Grades in the selected nursing theory courses correlated with performance on the NCLEX-RN. Grades in psychiatry nursing course were the best predictors, while grades in the nursing of children offered the least effective predictor.; Two-way contingency table analysis was constructed to evaluate the relationship between age, gender, ethnicity and program duration respectively. Results show that older graduates have higher pass rates on the NCLEX-RN than do younger graduates. White graduates pass the NCLEX-RN at a higher rate (82%) than minority students (56%). Gender has no effect on NCLEX-RN performance and the longer the subjects remained in school, the fewer their chances of passing the NCLEX-RN examination the first time.; Follow-up interviews were conducted with 18 nursing school graduates. Graduates described their academic and non-academic experiences during program completion, and were asked to identify strategies they had used and strategies that they would recommend to the institutions and other students in the nursing program to improve the program. Findings from the qualitative survey suggested that both academic and non-academic variables can contribute to one's performance on the NCLEX-RN examination. |
