Master's Theses

Department

Nursing

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Abstract

In order to practice as a professional nurse, graduates of a nursing program must pass the licensing examination, the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). NCLEX-RN pass rates are also utilized in accreditation processes as an indicator of program quality, as part of grant applications, and to recruit prospective students. Results from this investigation could assist in curriculum planning and development as well as aid in the promotion of students' successful completion of the examination to provide more licensed nurses to aid in alleviation of the current nursing shortage. Rosemarie Parse's Human Becoming Theory (Parse, 1995) provided a nursing framework for this investigation. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship between clinical experiences and NCLEX-RN pass rates. More specifically, do nursing programs who offer more clinical hours in nursing school and in a final semester capstone experience achieve higher pass rates on the first attempt on the NCLEX-RN examination? A non-experimental retrospective was the research design for this investigation. A convenience sample of baccalaureate nursing programs in Kansas provided the sample. Investigation results were statistically analyzed with Spearman's rho correlation to evaluate the strength of the relationship between the variables and chi-square test statistic to evaluate differences between groups. Results indicated that there was no significant relationship between the number of clinical hours in a nursing program and first time NCLEX-RN pass rates. Results also indicated there was no significant relationship between the number or capstone hours in a final semester in a nursing program and first time NCLEX-RN pass rates. A significant difference was indicated between nursing programs that provide a capstone course and nursing programs that do not provide a capstone course on first time NCLEX-RN pass rates.

Keywords

Nursing

Advisor

Dr. Carol Moore

Date of Award

Summer 2007

Document Type

Thesis - campus only access

Rights

© The Author(s)

Comments

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