This retrospective descriptive study addressed the relationship between reading
comprehension skills as measured by the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and the Nurse
Entrance Test and indices of academic success (i.e., grade point average of prerequisite
science courses and overall grade point average) prior to admission for students in a
Bachelor of Science in Nursing program with student success in the first semester of
nursing coursework. Overall, there has been a continual decline in average reading
ability of college-aged students. Reading is a basic skill for learning and academic
success. To successfully complete an academic program of study in preparation to
become professional nurses, students must be able to read and apply material from
textbooks and journals. With the well-documented nursing shortage, any attrition from a
nursing program contributes to the professional dilemma.
Correlational and descriptive methods were used to determine the relationships
among the variables for 179 students in this selected Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. A comparative approach was used to investigate possible cause and
effect relationships between measures of academic success of students and reading
comprehension abilities. Data were obtained from official academic records and test
results for the Nelson-Denny Reading Test and the Nurse Entrance Test. Statistical
procedures used to understand and interpret the interactions among and between the
variables and included frequency distributions, descriptive statistics, correlational
analysis, and a regression model.
Results of the study, limited to the students in this BSN program, indicated that
reading comprehension, as measured by the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, was better in
identifying student risk for academic failure. There was a positive relationship between
the grade point average (GPA) for prerequisite science courses, overall cumulative
GPA, and GPA for the first semester nursing courses. Early determination of reading
comprehension ability provides needed information to direct intervention activities to
improve individual reading comprehension abilities and, thus, promote successful
academic performance in the first semester of this nursing program and thereafter.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4728 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | Cook, Jennifer D. M. |
| Contributors | Stenning, Walter F |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 2627290 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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