| Nurse educators have an ethical obligation to ensure admission criteria and academic standards are reasonable and fair, yet effective indicators of graduate success. Passing the licensure examination (NCLEX-PN), a requirement for entry into the field of practical nursing, is an accepted measure of graduate success across practical nursing programs in the United States. A quantitative research design using archival data was conducted to analyze the impact of certain demographic characteristics (age, race, method of high school completion, and needs-based financial aid recipient), pre-admission variables (five PSB sub-scale scores, type of remedial basic skill courses taken, and repetition of remedial basic skill courses), and programmatic variables (course grade in PNU 127: Care of the Adult I and cumulative nursing GPA at program completion) as predictors of success on the NCLEX-PN licensure examination. In addition, this study explored whether differences in licensure rates existed among Ivy Tech State College's 16 practical nursing programs included in the study. The NCLEX-PN results and academic records of 114 practical nursing students were examined using forward inclusion logistic regression procedures. The results indicated the three variables of cumulative nursing grade point average, PSB-science score, and basic skill (remedial) reading were statistically significant predictors of NCLEX-PN performance. Cumulative nursing grade point average and PSB-science score increased the likelihood of passing the licensure examination on the first attempt, while taking remedial reading decreased the likelihood of obtaining a pass score. Results of a chi-square analysis indicated there was a statistically significant difference between NCLEX-PN licensure rates among Ivy Tech State College's 16 practical nursing programs when comparing the combined smaller nursing programs to each of the larger programs. These findings have implications for nurse educators, administrators, admission staff and students of practical nursing programs, particularly those in open-access technical colleges. |
