Accelerated Baccalaureate Nursing Students: Perceptions of Success

Thursday, 2 August 2012: 3:15 PM

Barbara Blozen, EdD, RN, BC, CNL
College of Nursing, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ

Learning Objective 1: identify the factors associated with NCLEX-RN success from accelerated nursing student perspectives.

Learning Objective 2: identify the experiences and challenges of accelerated nursing students on their paths to success in passing the state licensing exam (NCLEX-RN) on their first attempt.

Purpose:

Although there are a number of anecdotal reports on demographic characteristics and academic success of accelerated nursing students, few empirical studies have been undertaken to examine these students’ success, despite this type of programs’ existence for more than a decade, and only three studies have sought to examine the perspective of the accelerated nursing student. Using Knowles’ adult learning theory as a guiding framework, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore, from the accelerated nursing students’ perspective, the factors they reported as contributing to their success on the NCLEX-RN. This study also examined demographic characteristics of these accelerated students.

Methods:

The data were drawn from interviews with 12 accelerated nursing program graduates in a mid-Atlantic university. The research questions aimed to elicit participants’ descriptions of their experiences and factors contributing to their success from individual interviews.

Results:

An important finding for accelerated nursing curriculum development was the practicing of NCLEX-RN questions as the participants reported this was the factor that contributed most to their NCLEX-RN success.

Conclusion: The findings of this study have implications for educational policy and practice, and schools of nursing as the information gleaned from this study applies to curriculum strategies in an accelerated nursing program.