Impact of Blended Learning on NCLEX Scores and Subscores

The nursing workforce shortage is the biggest crisis that demands increased qualified licensed graduate nursing students. The shortage of licensed professional nurses has tremendously affected the quality of health care delivery. Subsequently, nursing schools are challenged to educate nursing students faster. Undergraduate nursing colleges have been challenged to educate more nurses faster to meet the increasing demands of qualified nurses in the workforce. Successful completion of the NCLEX exam is an entry requirement to practice as a registered nurse in the United States. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational research study is to compare the NCLEX score rates and sub-scores of psychosocial integrity and safety using data from multiple cohorts of the pre-licensure nursing program to evaluate the impact of the sudden transition from face-to-face (F2F) learning to a blended learning format. The study participants included students from the 2019 Spring and 2019 Fall cohorts who completed nursing in a F2F setup and 2020 Fall and 2021 Spring cohorts who completed nursing in a blended format. The pre-existing data of NCLEX scores and subcategory scores were obtained from two hundred and eighteen students enrolled in the F2F track, and two hundred and twenty-one students enrolled in the blended track of the nursing program. The pre-existing data obtained were coded separately in three sets using '0' for fail grade and '1' for pass grade to assess the correlation. The chi-square test of independence and Phi were employed to test the null hypothesis. The statistical analysis reported a significant difference in the NCLEX scores of the students, p < .001. Findings of the NCLEX safety and psychosocial subsection scores showed no ranked significant difference, p < .133 and p < .355. This study's results will help modify appropriate teaching-learning platforms to foster successful student learning outcomes and NCLEX success rates. Suggestions for future research include qualitative research to erase certain limitations, correlational studies including demographic factors, and a comparative study using a diverse, larger sample size. Additionally, as the global pandemic impacts this study, a follow-up study is recommended in the future to analyze NCLEX scores with sub-scores after the COVID pandemic. Keywords: Nurse education, NCLEX, COVID-19, Blended Learning, Exam scores. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-6-02 Publication date:March 31st 202

The Final Chapter In The Saga Of YIG

The magnetic insulator Yttrium Iron Garnet can be grown with exceptional quality, has a ferrimagnetic transition temperature of nearly 600 K, and is used in microwave and spintronic devices that can operate at room temperature. The most accurate prior measurements of the magnon spectrum date back nearly 40 years, but cover only 3 of the lowest energy modes out of 20 distinct magnon branches. Here we have used time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering to measure the full magnon spectrum throughout the Brillouin zone. We find that the existing model of the excitation spectrum, well known from an earlier work titled "The Saga of YIG", fails to describe the optical magnon modes. Using a very general spin Hamiltonian, we show that the magnetic interactions are both longer-ranged and more complex than was previously understood. The results provide the basis for accurate microscopic models of the finite temperature magnetic properties of Yttrium Iron Garnet, necessary for next-generation electronic devices.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 4 supplementary figures, 1 table, 1 supplementary tabl

Quantum and Semiclassical Calculations of Cold Atom Collisions in Light Fields

We derive and apply an optical Bloch equation (OBE) model for describing collisions of ground and excited laser cooled alkali atoms in the presence of near-resonant light. Typically these collisions lead to loss of atoms from traps. We compare the results obtained with a quantum mechanical complex potential treatment, semiclassical Landau-Zener models with decay, and a quantum time-dependent Monte-Carlo wave packet (MCWP) calculation. We formulate the OBE method in both adiabatic and diabatic representations. We calculate the laser intensity dependence of collision probabilities and find that the adiabatic OBE results agree quantitatively with those of the MCWP calculation, and qualitatively with the semiclassical Landau-Zener model with delayed decay, but that the complex potential method or the traditional Landau-Zener model fail in the saturation limit.Comment: 21 pages, RevTex, 7 eps figures embedded using psfig, see also http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/~kasuomin

Stimulated amplification of propagating spin waves

Spin-wave amplification techniques are key to the realization of magnon-based computing concepts. We introduce a novel mechanism to amplify spin waves in magnonic nanostructures. Using the technique of rapid cooling, we create a non-equilibrium state in excess of high-energy magnons and demonstrate the stimulated amplification of an externally seeded, propagating spin wave. Using an extended kinetic model, we qualitatively show that the amplification is mediated by an effective energy flux of high energy magnons into the low energy propagating mode, driven by a non-equilibrium magnon distribution