Date of Graduation

5-2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Curriculum and Instruction

Advisor/Mentor

Smith, Thomas E.C.

Committee Member

Collins, Kathleen M. T.

Second Committee Member

Smith-Blair, Nan

Third Committee Member

Wavering, Michael J.

Keywords

Health and environmental sciences; Education; Assessment Technologies Institute; Baccalaureate nursing; LLC; Logistic regression; Mastery; National Council Licensure Exam for Registered Nurses; Nursing; Standardized testing

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between standardized content specific mastery assessments and NCLEX-RN outcomes. Three content-specific standardized assessments testing Fundamentals, Pharmacology and Mental Health concepts were used to explain the dichotomous NCLEX-RN outcome of pass or fail. The three assessments were developed by Assessment Technologies Institute, LLC (ATI). The assessments were administered to baccalaureate nursing students (N = 119) during the first year of a nursing program in one public university over a period of five consecutive semesters. Group comparisons between those passing and those failing NCLEX-RN on the first attempt and correlations were calculated using SAS, Version 9.2. Multivariate analysis of the quantitative data was completed using the logistic regression procedure. The Stepwise iterative method to determine the most accurate model revealed the Pharmacology assessment score predicted the NCLEX-RN outcome of the sample with 73.7% accuracy. Use of the Pharmacology content assessment can assist nurse educators in early identification of at risk students for implementation of a comprehensive remediation plan to decrease NCLEX-RN failures.

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