| Attrition of nursing students contributes to the nursing shortage by decreasing the number of graduates into the field. Students who are not academically prepared or cognitively able to complete the rigorous nursing curriculum will struggle and may ultimately withdraw or fail. In order to improve the chances of retention, this study identified admission criteria that would assist in identifying those students who would be most likely to be successful in the first semester of an associate degree nursing program. Tinto's theory of retention, Wells's theory of nursing student retention, Shelton's Model of Nursing Student Retention, and Jeffreys's Nontraditional Undergraduate Retention and Success Model (NURS) were used as the theoretical foundation of this study. This study examined admission criteria of one large associate degree nursing program in the Midwest in the United States (U.S.) to determine if any of the requirements can predict success in the first semester of the nursing program. Records of incoming nursing students in the spring 2013 semester were examined in this retrospective, multi-level logistic regression study. The hypothesis for this study was that the independent variables of TEAS composite score, TEAS reading score, TEAS science score, TEAS English score, TEAS math score, pre-nursing GPA, and grades in Anatomy & Physiology would have a significant positive effect on the dependent variable of successful completion of the first semester of the nursing program. This hypothesis was partially proven; there was no correlation between the TEAS reading score or the grades in Anatomy and Physiology and the final course grade. The other independent variables showed statistically significant, albeit moderate or weak, correlation with the final course grade. Only TEAS composite score was statistically significant in predicting final course grade. However, it is noted that more than quantitative admission requirements will ensure recruitment of diverse students and retention of students. A more comprehensive approach to admission and retention, which can include standardized testing but should also include non-quantitative data, needs to be adopted in order to ensure students can be successful and to increase diversity of the nursing profession. |
