The usefulness of admission data as a predictor of completion of an associate degree nursing program.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine whether or not selected variables used in the admission process can predict and the extent to which they can predict whether or not the student will graduate from an associate degree nursing program. The independent variables for this study were: Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), number of courses completed prior to beginning the nursing program, the pre-admission Grade Point Average (GPA), the number of science courses completed pre-nursing, the number of courses repeated to earn a grade of C or better pre-nursing, and the number of hours transferred from other institutions of higher learning. The dependent variable was graduation. There were six research questions and six hypotheses. ANOVAs and chi-squares were conducted to answer these questions and test the hypotheses. The population for the study consisted of 399 students who did or should have graduated between the years of 1995–2000. A total of 319 students successfully completed the program, 54 students did not graduate due to academic difficulty; and 26 students did not graduate for reasons other than academic. Descriptive statistics were also obtained. The results indicated that GPA, prior course hours, and science courses were significantly related to graduation. The other hypotheses were not supported