Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007

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This presentation is part of : Nursing Education Innovations
Predictors of NCLEX-RN Success in Baccalaureate Nursing Students
Janice J. Hoffman, PhD, RN and Elizabeth E. Hill, PhD, RN. School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
Learning Objective #1: Discuss predictors of first time NCLEX-RN success and implcations to the ever increasing nursing shortage.
Learning Objective #2: Describe strategies to enhance reading and critical thinking ability in order to improve NCLEX-RN success.

Background: In 2006, the Health Resources and Services Administration reported the United States nursing shortage would grow to more than one-million by 2020. Complicating this shortage, between 1994 and 2004, success rates for first time licensure examinees (NCLEX-RN) decreased from 90% to 81%.The purpose of this study was to examine demographic and educational factors that predict NCLEX-RN success.

Methods: Guided by Perry’s Ethical and Intellectual Development Model, a descriptive correlational analysis was conducted using secondary data from a large baccalaureate nursing program. Demographics, standardized educational measures, the Nurse Entrance Test (NET) and Critical Thinking Process Test (CTPT), and NCLEX-RN results for 347 traditional and accelerated students were analyzed. Hierarchical logistic regression identified predictors of first time NCLEX-RN success.

Results: In Model 1, Africans were 80% less likely than African-Americans and Caucasians to achieve first time NCLEX-RN success (OR 0.20, 95% CI: 0.08 – 0.49). In Model 2, African ethnicity remained significant (OR 0.29, 95% CI: 0.10 – 0.85) and GPA (OR 2.63, 95% CI: 1.04 – 6.76) and NET Reading (OR 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01 – 1.08) were significant. In Model 3, when CTPT was entered, all other predictors became non-significant, indicating that for every  one-point increase in CTPT, there was an 11% increased likelihood of first attempt NCLEX-RN success (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.05 – 1.18).


Conclusions: While additional studies need to be conducted to examine other predictors of NCLEX-RN success, these findings indicate the need for design of interventions to improve both reading and critical thinking skills. Maximizing student success and first time NCLEX-RN pass rates, will have a direct impact on the nursing shortage.