| The Problem. The study focused on the problem of predicting academic success in an associate degree nursing program, and was concerned with the relationship between grades achieved in basic science courses, the ACT Composite score, reading level of the student, and success in a nursing program, as measured by cumulative grade point average in nursing. The study sought to determine if there was a difference between generic students, advanced standing students, and those students who withdrew from the nursing program in regard to those academic variables and to what extent the academic variables, in combination with certain demographic variables gleaned from the review of the literature, could predict academic success in an associate degree nursing program.;Method. Students in the last five graduating classes (N = 220) were stratified according to curriculum track, i.e., generic and advanced standing. An analysis of variance was performed to determine if generic students differed from advanced standing students and from students who withdrew from the program in regard to ACT Composite score, Nelson-Denny Reading Test score, grades achieved in anatomy/physiology and microbiology, and cumulative grade point average in nursing. Multiple regression analysis was done to determine the extent to which academic success--the single criterion variable--could be predicted from the independent variables related to academic achievement/potential and the independent demographic categorical variables.;Results. Analysis of data resulted in fourteen statistically significant determinations. The analysis of variance yielded significant differences on all variables at p < .01. The multiple regression analysis produced five variables, grade achieved in microbiology, ACT Composite score, ethnicity, grade achieved in anatomy/physiology, and marital status, with significance at p < .05. They accounted for 53 percent of the variance in grade point average in nursing. On the basis of the findings and considering the assumptions and limitations of the study, the following conclusions were drawn relative to the questions which were addressed: (1)Generic students have higher grades in the basic sciences, higher ACT Composite scores and Nelson-Denny Reading Test scores, and a higher cumulative grade point average in nursing than advanced standing (transfer/challenge) students and students who withdrew from the nursing program. (2)Ethnic minority students have a lower grade point average in nursing, achieve lower grades in anatomy/physiology and microbiology, have lower ACT scores and Nelson-Denny Reading Test scores than majority culture students. (3)Married students achieve higher grades in basic sciences and in nursing than single, divorced, widowed, or separated students. (4)Grades achieved in microbiology and the ACT Composite score are strong predictors of academic success in this nursing program. (5)Grade achieved in anatomy/physiology, although significant, is a weaker predictor of success in this nursing program. |
