Abstract

The National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) firsttime pass rate for an associate degree in nursing (ADN) program was below the national mean, presenting a problem for graduates who failed the NCLEX-RN and could not enter the workforce as registered nurses. Knowles's assumptions of adult learning, Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve, and Zull's neuroscience research served as the theoretical frameworks for this study. The purpose of this study was to identify which academic and time-lapse variables predict the graduate's first-time passage for the NCLEX-RN. Archived academic records and NCLEX-RN results for all 786 graduates from one ADN program who took the NCLEX-RN for the first time in 2015 were reviewed. Binary logistic regression analysis of the data identified multiple academic and one time lag factor as significant predictors for first-time NCLEX-RN passage. Key results included positive relationships between academic variables (prerequisite grade point average [GPA], nursing GPA, cumulative GPA, final course grade in 1 medical surgical course) and NCLEX-RN passage. An inverse relationship was shown between NCLEX-RN pass and the number of nursing component failures and time lag between clinical capstone completion and first NCLEX-RN attempt. Results informed a policy recommendation to provide timely intervention and resources for students at risk, with a goal of promoting success on the first attempt of the NCLEX-RN. Increasing the numbers of graduates who successfully complete the NCLEX-RN on the first attempt and promptly join the nursing workforce will demonstrate positive social change by mitigating the nursing shortage, which promotes safe patient care.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 10845030; ProQuest document ID: 2090896844. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Dawne DeVoe Olbrych, EdD, RN

Sigma Membership

Tau Kappa at-Large

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

Quantitative Research

Keywords:

NCLEX Predictors, Academic Factors, Adult Learning, Time-Lapse Variables

Advisor

Janet Reid-Hector

Second Advisor

Richard Hammett

Degree

Doctoral-Other

Degree Grantor

Walden University

Degree Year

2018

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2022-07-13

Full Text of Presentation

wf_yes

Share

COinS