High-stakes licensure or certification examinations are required for many health professions disciplines to ensure safe entry-level practice. Accrediting agencies set a benchmark for graduates' first-time licensure or certification success as a measure of program effectiveness. Failures of graduates on licensure or certification examinations may directly affect the school's recruitment and retention of qualified students and faculty, as well as institutional financial viability. A health science university has added Health Education System, Inc. (HESI) standardized examinations using computer adaptive testing into the family nurse practitioner (FNP) master's program to support certification success, although research on these advanced practice examinations as related to certification outcomes was lacking. Guided by classical test theory, this study was an investigation of whether a relationship existed between students' performance on 4 HESI standardized examinations (Advanced Pathophysiology, Advanced Pharmacotherapeutics, Advanced Health Assessment, and the APRN/FNP Exit exam) and first-time FNP certification success. Binary logistic regression analysis of data from 117 students who graduated between 2013-2016 indicated that none of the 4 standardized HESI examinations significantly predicted FNP certification success, perhaps due to the examinations not carrying any evaluative weight within the program. The results of this project study may be used to promote positive social change by providing a means to improve first-time certification success and increasing the availability of primary care providers in the role of FNP.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of pre-entrance factors and the success of students in an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree nursing program at a community college in East Tennessee. The criterion variable was success in the nursing program. Success was defined as academic success in all nursing courses and completion of the nursing program to graduation. The predictor variables of pre-entrance factors were gender, age, Health Education Systems, Incorporated (HESI) A2 scores, Pell Grant eligibility, pre-nursing GPA, and prior licensure. The data for this non-experimental secondary analysis were derived from the electronic database in the community college Banner system. The population of the study consisted of all students accepted into the A.A.S. Nursing Program at a selected community college for academic years beginning 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16. The population of the study was approximately 300 students. Analyses of the data were completed using independent samples t-test and chi-square cross tabs. Findings revealed that the mean HESI A2 scores were higher in those students that successfully completed the Nursing program than those that did not complete the program. Findings revealed a statistical significance between gender and program completion with females more likely to successfully complete the nursing program than male students. The factors that had no significant relationship to successful completion were age, high school GPA, Pre-nursing GPA and holding prior licensure. Findings also revealed students who are Pell eligible were not significantly more likely to complete the nursing program than those students who were not Pell eligible.

A LLE-GC-MS method was developed to detect PPCPs in surface water samples from Big Cypress National Park, Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park in South Florida. The most frequently found PPCPs were caffeine, DEET and triclosan with detected maximum concentration of 169 ng/L, 27.9 ng/L and 10.9 ng/L, respectively. The detection frequencies of hormones were less than PPCPs. Detected maximal concentrations of estrone, 17β-estradiol, coprostan-3-ol, coprostane and coprostan-3-one were 5.98 ng/L, 3.34 ng/L, 16.5 ng/L, 13.5 ng/L and 6.79 ng/L, respectively. An ASE-SPE-GC-MS method was developed and applied to the analysis of the sediment and soil area where reclaimed water was used for irrigation. Most analytes were below detection limits, even though some of analytes were detected in the reclaimed water at relatively high concentrations corroborating the fact that PPCPs do not significantly partition to mineral phases. An online SPE-HPLC-APPI-MS/MS method and an online SPE-HPLC-HESI-MS/MS method were developed to analyze reclaimed water and drinking water samples. In the reclaimed water study, reclaimed water samples were collected from the sprinkler for a year-long period at Florida International University Biscayne Bay Campus, where reclaimed water was reused for irrigation. Analysis results showed that several analytes were continuously detected in all reclaimed water samples. Coprostanol, bisphenol A and DEET’s maximum concentration exceeded 10 µg/L (ppb). The four most frequently detected compounds were diphenhydramine (100%), DEET (98%), atenolol (98%) and carbamazepine (96%). In the study of drinking water, 54 tap water samples were collected from the Miami-Dade area. The maximum concentrations of salicylic acid, ibuprofen and DEET were 521 ng/L, 301 ng/L and 290 ng/L, respectively. The three most frequently detected compounds were DEET (93%), carbamazepine (43%) and salicylic acid (37%), respectively. Because the source of drinking water in Miami-Dade County is the relatively pristine Biscayne aquifer, these findings suggest the presence of wastewater intrusions into the delivery system or the onset of direct influence of surface waters into the shallow aquifer.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of the midcurricular HESI examination in identifying at-risk students early in their nursing program. The sample included baccalaureate nursing graduates from two university programs in the southeastern United States (n = 256). A quasiexperimental design was used to determine how well the midcurricular HESI predicted outcomes on the HESI E2 and the NCLEX-RN passing status while controlling for demographic and institutional covariates. The study used logistic regression and multiple linear regression to analyze the hypotheses. The midcurricular HESI examination was found to be a statistically significant predictor of NCLEX-RN outcomeboth before (P = .044) and after (P = .041) controlling for demographic factors. The study further found a statistically significant relationship between the midcurricular HESI and the HESI E 2 examinations (P < .001). In the post hoc analyses, students from the Accelerated and Fast Track degree programs scored significantly higher than did students in the Traditional Track on themidcurricular HESI examination. There were no statistically significant differences in HESI E2 scores or NCLEX-RN outcomes among the degree tracks. As anticipated, there was a statistically significant difference in both midcurricular HESI (P < .043) and HESI E2 (P < .016) scores between students who passed and those who failed NCLEX-RN. This study indicates that the midcurricular HESI examination is very useful in predicting outcomes in baccalaureate nursing education programs.

This study examined the value of the HESI Admission Assessment in predicting student success. Associate degree (N ≤ 68) and baccalaureate (N ≤ 69) nursing students took the HESI Admission Assessment after acceptance into the nursing programs for the purpose of identifying their academic weaknesses and focusing their remediation efforts. Findings indicated that the HESI Admission Assessment was a valid predictor of students' academic ability to succeed in the nursing programs. In the associate degree nursing program, HESI Admission Assessment scores were significantly positively correlated with 88.89% of all nursing course grades in the program and 100% of the beginning-level course grades. In the baccalaureate nursing program, HESI Admission Assessment scores were significantly positively correlated with 50.00% of all nursing course grades in the program and 80.00% of beginning-level course grades. Furthermore, associate degree nursing students who completed the program had significantly higher HESI Admission Assessment scores than those who did not complete the program.

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