Pre‐registration diploma students: a quantitative study of entry characteristics and course outcomes

Abstract

Nurse education has been transformed over the last decade and continuing change is likely. Nurse educators are responsible for meeting the quality assurance standards of local stakeholders and student retention and progress are important aspects of this process. As part of a monitoring exercise, an enquiry was set up to review pre-registration selection and recruitment strategies and to establish if there were any significant relationships between the characteristics of pre-registration diploma entrants and their academic achievement or completion rates. A multi-factorial tree-based technique was used for this purpose. This is one of the first British studies to consider both academic performance and completion rates for pre-registration diploma students. Four cohorts (N = 355) were studied. There was marked heterogeneity in student characteristics with a wide age distribution, a significant proportion of mature entrants with previous care experience, and considerable diversity in terms of education. Education and age were significant predictors of academic achievement: entrants with a minimum of two A levels and mature women with recent study experience did particularly well. Younger recruits with modest educational qualifications on entry performed less well in their assessments of theoretical knowledge. Younger students tended to leave more regularly, and well-qualified entrants showed a greater tendency to complete, although these relationships were not statistically significant. Multi-factorial analysis demonstrated that organisational and course characteristics have a conjoint influence on course outcomes. Although the study is concerned with Project 2000 in the United Kingdom, there are lessons to be drawn concerning the selection and support of non-traditional recruits into nursing.

Risk of Attritionfrom Master of Science in Pharmacy Degree Program: 15-year Predictive Evaluation.

“…31 Also, in case of a highly feminised profession such as nursing, it was observed that men bear a sig nificantly higher risk of dropping out than women. 13,[32][33][34] On the other hand, studies performed among the participants of a military medical programme show that it is women who present a greater attrition risk than men (OR=2.4). Also, when learning at a dental school, a tendency is observed among men to achieve higher scores in the practical tests and better grade averages, however, there is no data on the subject of risk evalua tion in this field of studies.…”

L’effet de la personnalité sur la performance des étudiants universitaires en sciences de l’administration à l’examen écrit, au test à choix multiple et aux travaux pratiques

“…À notre connaissance, il s'agit de la seule étude antérieure qui a vérifié ce lien. Par ailleurs, les résultats obtenus de la présente étude permettent de clarifier ceux des études antérieures selon lesquelles plus les étudiants sont âgés, meilleure est leur performance académique (El Ansari, 2002 ;Kevern et al, 1999;McKenzie & Schwitzer, 2001;Sheard, 2009). Cette relation est donc valable lorsque la performance académique est mesurée par les scores au test à choix multiples.…”

“…Elle se différencie sur au moins un aspect important: elle utilise les scores réellement obtenus à ces méthodes d'évaluation plutôt que des scores auto-rapportés. Afin de quantifier l'impact réel de la personnalité, cette étude contrôlera pour le genre et l'âge car ces variables semblent influencer tant la personnalité (Budaev, 1999;Dollinger & Orf, 1991;Donnellan & Lucas, 2008;Furnham, Chamorro-Premuzic, & McDougall, 2003;Lakhal et al, 2015;Rubinstein, 2005;Schmitt, Realo, Voracek, & Allik, 2008) que la performance académique (El Ansari, 2002;Kevern, Ricketts, & Webbs, 1999;McKenzie & Schweitzer, 2001;Sheard, 2009 & Furnham, 2005). Le trait varie en degré d'un individu à l'autre et les sujets peuvent être classifiés en fonction du degré qu'ils possèdent de chacun de ces traits (McCrea & Costa, 1990).…”

“…Lakhal et al (2015) ont trouvé pour leur part que les femmes (n=99) sont moins stables émotionnellement que les hommes (n=70), mais qu'elles sont plus aimables et plus consciencieuses. Plusieurs études ont montré que les étudiants plus âgés ont tendance à obtenir une meilleure performance académique générale que les étudiants plus jeunes (El Ansari, 2002;Kevern et al, 1999;McKenzie & Schweitzer, 2001;Sheard, 2009), possiblement parce que les étudiants plus âgés sont plus motivés à réussir, possèdent un niveau plus élevé de locus de contrôle, démontrent une plus grande efficacité au niveau de leurs apprentissages et investissent plus de temps dans leurs études que les étudiants plus jeunes (McKenzie & Gow, 2004). Une seule étude, à notre connaissance, a fait le lien entre l'âge et la performance aux méthodes d'évaluation.…”

Psychometric properties of the Scale for Quality Evaluation of the Bachelor Degree in Nursing Version 2 (QBN 2)

“…Another important concept to consider when measuring degree courses' quality is the dropout prevention, the students abandoning the courses are usually those who had low grades in pre-entrance tests (Houltram, 1996;Kevern et al, 1999;Pryjmachuk et al, 2009), with parents who did not graduate, with a lower socioeconomic status; other important factors are student's age (Houltram, 1996;Kevern et al, 1999;Mulholland et al, 2008;Pryjmachuk et al, 2009), gender (Mulholland et al, 2008;Pryjmachuk et al, 2009) and course's topic (Higher Education Funding Council England, 2000;McMillan, 2005;Jeffreys, 2007). However, just one factor can be sufficient to cause drop out.…”