Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Disciplines

Education

Abstract

The National League for Nursing developed the Pre-Examination for RN Programs (PAX-RN) to predict academic success for applicants at the completion of the first year of nursing programs. While the PAX-RN is normed on a stratified sample, the effectiveness of this test in predicting academic success for minority disadvantaged students is unclear. A cohort of 41 predominately minority students (56.1%) enrolled in an Associate Degree nursing program in an urban environment completed the PAX-RN as part of the admission process. As predicted, verbal and composite scores were significantly higher for students who passed the first semester nursing course than for those who failed. However, there were no significant differences in mean scores for students at the completion of the first year. These first-year results should be considered with caution due to the small sample size. Future research is needed to identify those factors predicting academic success for minority disadvantaged students.

Included in

Education Commons

COinS