The problem with which this study is concerned is the inclusion of actual critical care experience in generic nursing curricula in the United States. A survey instrument was sent to faculty representatives selected by the dean of each of 312 generic baccalaureate nursing programs.

The primary purpose of the study was to identify liberal education skills necessary for competent, professional nursing practice and to compare baccalaureate and associate degree faculties' perceptions of the importance of liberal education skills and program emphasis on those skills. Further, the study sought to identify underlying factors of liberal education skills perceived by college nursing faculty to be required for competent, professional nursing practice. Finally, the study attempted to identify differences in baccalaureate and associate degree faculties' perceptions of the importance of liberal education skills and program emphasis place on those skills by public and private institutional membership and by National League for Nursing (NLN) geographic accrediting region assignment. The study's survey approach could be classified as a quasi-experimental design. The study utilized a multistage, stratified sample of 432 baccalaureate and associate degree nursing faculty. Seventy-two baccalaureate and 72 associate degree nursing programs were randomly selected from the four NLN geographic regions. Each dean or director of selected programs was requested to select three nursing faculty "most knowledgeable of the nursing curriculum" to complete the instrument. Data for the study were collected by means of the "Liberal Education Skills Inventory for Nursing" (LESIN). Data analysis was accomplished through the use of descriptive statistics, principal factors analysis, and analysis of variance. Major conclusions of the study were (1) nine of the ten LESIN subscales had mean faculty ratings suggesting high skill importance to competent, professional nursing practice; (2) one factor ("conceptual abilities") underlying faculty perceptions of liberal education skills importance was extracted; (3) there were statistically significant differences in baccalaureate and associate degree faculties' perceptions regarding skills importance on two of the LESIN subscales and regarding program emphasis on five of the subscales; (4) on each of the ten LESIN subscales, faculty from public and private institutions did not differ significantly on their perceptions of skills importance and did differ significantly on one subscale regarding program emphasis; and (5) the mean skill importance and program emphasis responses of faculty did not differ significantly on the ten LESIN subscales by NLN geographic accrediting region assignment. In addition, information regarding liberal education skills program evaluation measures or standards was reported.

This descriptive survey study investigated the value of faculty practice among Commission of Collegiate Nurse Education (CCNE) Accredited Nursing Schools. The sample included all CCNE accredited schools that offered a Masters degree. Subjects from the 66 schools in the sample the dean and three Nurse Practitioner faculty who are teaching a clinical course. Response rate was 51% for the deans and 35% for the faculty. The opinions of deans were compared to the opinions of faculty on the views of faculty practice as research and the incorporation of faculty practice in the tenure and merit review system. The results showed faculty and deans differed on the value of faculty practice as research. However, only 6.5 % of statistically significance difference was contributable to whether the response was from a dean of a faculty. There was no significant difference to the inclusion of faculty practice in the tenure and merit review system. Boyer's expanded definition of research was used as a theoretical background. Deans viewed faculty practice more important as compared to the traditional faculty expectation of research than faculty did. The operational definition of faculty practice was that it required scholarly outcomes from the practice. Deans were more willing than faculty to acknowledge there were scholarly measurable outcomes to evaluate faculty practice than faculty were. The greatest difference in opinion of outcomes was the deans were more willing to accept clinically focused articles as an outcome than faculty were. Faculty were asked how the money from faculty practice was distributed. Faculty overwhelmingly reported that money generated from faculty practice most often goes to the individual faculty member. Suggested areas for future research involve investigation of the role of tenure committees in tenure decisions relating to research and faculty practice.

The purpose of this study was to determine which academic and demographic factors predict students' achievement in the nursing major of a baccalaureate program. Records of 128 full time subjects were examined to extract the factors selected to be included in the analysis.Data pertaining to each independent variable were organized into three distinct groups based on the known performance of each subject following certification. One group passed all course work in the nursing major; one group failed one or more courses in the nursing major delaying completion; and one group was no longer enrolled. To investigate the differences in the group membership, discriminant function analyses were performed to examine academic and demographic predictors. A classification technique was utilized to test the adequacy of each discriminant function analysis. All classification analyses were 72.3 percent and above in probability level.Two null hypotheses guided this study: Hypothesis I proposed that academic factors do not predict attrition and/or retention in a baccalaureate nursing program; and Hypothesis II proposed that demographic factors do not interact with academic factors in predicting success. Hypothesis I was rejected , and Hypothesis II was not fully accepted based on discriminant function analyses.The following conclusions were identified from the findings of this study:1. Grade point averages in the required prerequisite courses predicted group membership (achievement) in the nursing major.2. Grade point averages of 3.0 during progression in the nursing major predicted membership in a group defined as continuing successfully in the first attempt of course work and graduating on time.3. Grade point averages of less than 3.0 following the first semester in the nursing major predicted membership in a group defined as failing at least one course, or perhaps predict membership in a group that will experience attrition.4. Ethnicity made a significant contribution with academic factors to predicting group membership for achievement.These results suggest that nursing educators and counselors need to consider the importance of not only closely monitoring each subject's semester grade point average, but also referring the identified problem to the appropriate service provider for intervention.3 / Department of Educational Leadership

The purposes of this study are to identify student retention strategies in generic baccalaureate schools of nursing and their supporting institutions to determine if these strategies vary according to identified characteristics of the school of nursing and its supporting institution and to determine the perceived effectiveness of the strategies. Data were collected from 313 administrative heads of schools of nursing that offer generic baccalaureate programs accredited by the National League for Nursing; 217 returned usable questionnaires constituted a national response rate of 69.3 per cent. Frequency distribution and the chi-square test of independence, significant at the .05 level, were used for statistical treatment of the data.

This study is concerned with the problem of determining the status of.specific student retention efforts at the departmental and institutional levels in institutions of higher education offering baccalaureate degrees in nursing. The purposes of the study include (1) the determination of the percentages of those institutions which have specific programs to increase student retention in place and functioning at the various administrative levels, (2) the determination of those aspects of the many possible retention efforts that are being utilized, (3) identification of those retention efforts which may be most effective, and (4) comparison of retention rates between those institutions with organized retention programs and those without these programs. The population of the study is composed of all 430 of the National League for Nursing (NLN) accredited, Registered Nurse Baccalaureate Degree programs in the United States. The specially designed survey instrument produced a 62 percent response return. Response frequencies and percentages were calculated to show the relative success rates of various retention efforts. In addition, the data were subjected to several statistical procedures to determine if there were statistically significant differences between the various types and levels of retention efforts. The findings indicate that the presence of an organized and functioning program to increase student retention does produce a statistically significant increase in the mean retention rate for those institutions with such programs as compared with those institutions without organized retention programs. This significant increase was constant across the three types or levels of retention programs surveyed (departmental level only, university level only, both university and departmental levels). The majority of the respondents (55.5 percent) do have retention programs in place and functioning at some level in their institutions. Of the six major areas of retention efforts listed on the questionnaire, the area dealing the "Administrative Activities" to increase student retention was present most often among that group of respondents with the highest retention rates.

This study investigated current use of American Association of Colleges of Nursing guidelines in preparing the baccalaureate nurse graduate to practice nursing in the community health sector of the healthcare delivery system and use of community based healthcare delivery sites by baccalaureate programs located in non-urbanized and urbanized areas. The extent of guidelines adoption, plans by colleges not currently using them to do so in the future, and impact of accreditation visits on the adoption of the guidelines were also explored. A qualitative survey design was used to describe the use of AACN guidelines in the development of baccalaureate nursing education.