For the last twenty-eight years the Reading Center and Clinic, at Western Michigan University, has been testing applicants for the Bronson School of Nursing. This school has room for only eighty-six entering freshmen each year; so it is vital that only the most capable applicants be selected

Pervanger, Janet

Smith, Dorothy E.

English

ScholarWorks at WMU

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage ArtsVolume 14Issue 3 April 1974 Article 54-1-1974Reading, A Major Factor in Determining Success inNursing EducationDorothy E. SmithWestern Michigan UniversityJanet PervangerWestern Michigan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizonsPart of the Education CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the SpecialEducation and Literacy Studies at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage Arts by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at WMU. For moreinformation, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu.Recommended CitationSmith, D. E., & Pervanger, J. (1974). Reading, A Major Factor in Determining Success in Nursing Education. Reading Horizons: AJournal of Literacy and Language Arts, 14 (3). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol14/iss3/5READING. A MAJOR FACTOR IN DETERMINING SUCCESS IN NURSING EDUCATION Dorothy E. Smith ASSIST ANT PROFESSOR WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY and Janet Pervanger GRADUATE STUDENT WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY For the last twenty-eight years the Reading Center and Clinic, at Western Michigan University, has been testing applicants for the Bron-son School of Nursing. This school has room for only eighty-six enter-ing freshmen each year; so it is vital that only the most capable appli-cants be selected. Our examination procedure for applicants to the school includes: a nurse aptitude test, an arithmetic test for nurses, the Ohio State Psychological Inventory, * the Draw-A-Person test, various personality measures, and an informal interview. It has been our subjective view that the most important factor in predicting success in nursing educa-tion was the O.S.P.I., and thus we have used the percentile of the total score as the primary criterion for "pass" or "fail." The results of the other tests and techniques are given weight, too, in varying degrees, but the fortieth percentile on the O.S.P.I. is used as the cut-off point. The present study was initiated to verify or to nullify our contention that language skills-and particularly reading-are vital to academic success in nursing education. We also decided to ascertain if seIf-concept were a factor in success. The time period of study was 1944-1968. The nurse applicants starting the three-year program in 1968 were eligible for graduation by 1971. Over the last twenty-four years of the study, 3,586 applicants have been tested and interviewed. Of these people, 1,986 passed the fortieth percentile O.S.P.I. criterion and 1,600 failed. Of the 1,986 people who passed, 843 subsequently graduated and 1,143 failed to graduate. Of the 1,600 people who failed, some (the actual number is unknown) were permitted to attend the school and 136 of them actual-ly graduated. * Hereafter referred to as O.S.P.I. 126-rh SUBJECTS* Total Number Number Passing: Number passing and graduating Number passing and not graduating Number Failing: Number failing and not graduating Number failing and graduating 3,586 1,986 843 1,143 1,600 1,464 136 ~. Since the number of male applicants has been so small (about 10 or 15 out of a total of 3,586), sex was not used as a variable. DRAW-A-PERSON TEST SCORES OF PASSING AND FAILING NURSE APPLICANTS From 1966-1968 four hundred and thirty-one applicants were given the Draw-A-Person Test. Using the Smith-Pervanger adaptation of the Hayworth-Normington Measure of Self Concept, the results of the scoring system were as follows: Passing Nurse Applicants Failing Nurse Applicants Mean Number (Parameter, 1-4) 267 164 2.584 2.348 The t ratio is 3.16 which is significant at the .01 level of confi-dence. Thus, it can be stated that the Draw-A-Person Test is dis-criminating between passing and failing applicants and that self concept is a factor in the success of the applicants. An interesting fact, however, is that the correlations between Draw-A-Person scores and any of the O.S.P.I. subtests or totals are invariably poor. It can be hypothesized, therefore, that the Draw-A-Person Test is measuring different factors from those measured by the O.S.P.I. O.S.P.I. TEST SCORES OF PASSING AND FAILING NURSE APPLICANTS As a group, the passing-graduates attained significantly higher mean raw scores (.01 or above) on the three subtests and total than did the passing-non-graduates. For both the graduates and non-gradu-ates of the passing group, the standard deviations for all three sub-tests indicated a relatively low dispersion of raw scores. The total mean score received the greatest spread of scores. The performance on this test suggested the achievement of relative homogeneity for each group. The standard deviations of the failing group indicated narrower rh-127 clustering of raw scores for both the graduates and non-graduates. Although the mean raw score was greater for the fail-graduate than failing-non-graduates, the Language Usage mean scores did not differ significantly. For the combination of applicants (whether they passed or failed the test criterion), the graduates received much higher raw scores than the non-graduates. The standard deviations for the com-bined groups indicated a wider dispersion of scores. (See Table 1) A high correlation existed between the subtests and total score for the passing groups. The failing groups maintained a moderate cor-relation between the sub tests and total. However, an extremely low correlation existed between individual sub tests for the failing-graduate group. (See Table 2) CONCLUSIONS 1. The Draw-A-Person Test is useful as a predictor of success in nursing school. 2. Total scores of the O.S.P.I. are significantly higher for the graduates of both the passing and failing groups than for the non-graduates of each. 3. The vocabulary sub test scores are significantly higher for grad-uates than for non-graduates of both groups. 4. The least discriminating subtest for the failing group, between those who graduated and those who did not, is the language usage subtest. 5. The reading mean differs significantly between graduates and non-graduates of both the passing and failing groups. According to our samples, the reading portion of the O.S.P.I. is the best predictor of success in nursing education whether the in-dividual passed or failed the total test. This may mean that if a person fails the O.S.P.I. criterion but has an adequate reading score, his chances of successfully completing the nursing education are much improved. Table 1-Subtest mean scores, standard deviations and t ratios for passing and failing nurse applicants who graduated and those who did not graduate Subtests Vocabulary Raw Score Language Usage Raw Score Reading Raw Score Total Raw Score Subtests Vocabulary Raw Score Language Usage Raw Score Reading Raw Score Total Raw Score Passing Applicants Graduate N==843 Mean S.D. 17.252 4.598 34.001 8.556 37.790 6.507 89.144 15.717 Failing Applicants Graduate N==136 Mean S.D. 9.910 3.380 18.170 5.330 26.240 5.270 54.380 8.460 Not Graduate N==1143 Mean S.D. 16.675 4.480 32.636 8.232 36.044 6.558 85.325 15.202 Not Graduate N==1464 Mean S.D. 8.840 3.530 17.570 5.340 23.300 5.670 49.700 10.290 p< 2.803 .01 3.589 .001 5.880 .001 5.451 .001 p< 3.391 .001 1.252 NS 5.814 .001 5.141 .001 ....... N CO I .., ~ Table 2-Correlation of D.S.P.I. subtest percentile scores and total percentile scores for passing and failing nurse applicants who graduated and those who did not graduate Subtests Vocabulary Raw Score Language Usage Raw Score Reading Raw Score Total Raw Score Combination of Passing-Failing Applicants Graduate Not Graduate N:=979 N:=2607 Mean S.D. Mean S.D. 16.230 5.120 12.270 5.550 31.800 9.840 24.170 10.080 36.180 7.500 28.890 8.770 84.310 19.160 65.320 21. 750 t 19.429 20.319 23.030 24.032 p< .001 .001 .001 .001 Vocabulary Language Usage Reading Vocabulary V ocabulary Language Usage and and and and and and Group Passing-Graduate Passing-Not Graduate Failing-Not Graduate Failing-Graduate Total Total Total Language Usage Reading Reading .72 .84 .75 .49 .41 .40 .71 .83 .75 .44 .40 .38 .61 .70 .74 .21 .29 .20 .48 .64 .65 .05 .13 .01 All correlations are significant at the .01 level except Failing-Graduate subtest percentiles: Vocabulary and Language Usage, Vocabulary and Reading and Language Usage and Reading ....., ~ I I--" N <..0 

Reading, A Major Factor in Determining Success in Nursing Education

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2532&context=reading_horizons

Reading, A Major Factor in Determining Success in Nursing Education

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ScholarWorks at WMU