82 Academic, Clinical and In-house Review Performances as Predictors of Outcomes in Nursing Licensure Examination DONNA LOU E. NERI, RN, MHSS [email protected]Abstract - This study sought to determine possible factors which predict performance in the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE). This is a descriptive, ex post facto research which utilized documentary analysis. Statistical techniques employed were the frequency, percentage, weighted mean, T-test and multiple regression analysis. NLE passers were usually those students who were performing well in the classroom, during clinical duties and passers are typically students who were performing poorly in Surgical Nursing as their waterloo. Passers of the nursing licensure Passers of the board exam performance, although they succeeded in hurdling the exam, got “low passing” scores (75-79). Scores are lowest in the areas of Curative Care which comprised Medical- and skills in nursing are learned in both the academic and clinical Once students are performing well in these 3 areas of learning, they have a 55% chance of making it in the board exam. Keywords - intellective variables, licensure examination, performance predictors, inhouse review Final Revision Accepted: September 17, 2008 Vol. 6 No. 1 December 2009 ISSN: 2094-1064 CHED Accredited Research Journal, Category B Liceo Journal of Higher Education Research Social Science Section doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7828/ljher.v6i1.48
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Liceo Journal of Higher Education Research
Academic, Clinical and In-house Review Performances as Predictors of Outcomes in
Abstract - This study sought to determine possible factors which predict performance in the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE). This is a descriptive, ex post facto research which utilized documentary analysis. Statistical techniques employed were the frequency, percentage, weighted mean, T-test and multiple regression analysis. NLE passers were usually those students who were performing well in the classroom, during clinical duties and
passers are typically students who were performing poorly in
Surgical Nursing as their waterloo. Passers of the nursing licensure
Passers of the board exam performance, although they succeeded in hurdling the exam, got “low passing” scores (75-79). Scores are lowest in the areas of Curative Care which comprised Medical-
and skills in nursing are learned in both the academic and clinical
Once students are performing well in these 3 areas of learning, they have a 55% chance of making it in the board exam.
Vol. 6 No. 1 December 2009 ISSN: 2094-1064CHED Accredited Research Journal, Category B
Liceo Journal of Higher Education ResearchSocial Science Section
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7828/ljher.v6i1.48
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INTRODUCTION
The future of nursing lies not with the leaders of the past or the present but rather with today’s and tomorrow’s nurses (Kozier, 2002). It is, therefore, very important that future nurses uphold the standards of nursing practice.
Nurses, along with the other members of the health care team, deal with human lives. This fact gives them less, if not, absolutely no room for mistakes. Any error committed, whether big or small, may cost the life of a patient. Furthermore, the nurse’s unique role demands a blend of sensitivity, caring, commitment, and skill based on broad knowledge and its application in practice (Potter, 2000).
Nursing and the education of nurses is controlled from within the profession through the board of nursing and a national accrediting body. For a newly graduate nurse to practice as registered nurse in the Philippines, he/she must take and pass the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE). This is given by the Professional Regulation Commission through the Board of Nursing.
Hence, the licensure examination by design is a measure to determine one’s adequacy before one can practice a particular profession. Hence, the nursing board exam establishes the newly graduate nurse’s readiness to render safe and competent service to health consumers.
In this University College of Nursing has been providing nursing education for the past thirty-one years. From 1974 up to the late 1990s, the college was getting hundred percent passing average, with topnotchers, in the Nursing Licensure Examination. However, starting in the year 2000, there has been a consistent decline of the passing percentage among the College of Nursing board takers. In relation to this phenomenon, the researcher searches for variables that predict the passing in the Nursing Licensure Examination.
In an academic setting, it is the responsibility and accountability of the members in the academic system to ensure the success of its graduates. Thus, results of this study will hopefully be used for the improvement and enhancement of the teaching and learning
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process in nursing education. The College of Nursing has been conforming to the University’s vision of Total Human Formation. In particular, its Philosophy is to educate the youth by instilling in them a commitment to academic excellence. Moreover, its education tenets had been realigned consistently with the national development program which is upgrading the quality of students and graduates.
Licean nurses are provided with a dynamic curriculum that covers a broad spectrum of academic objectives. Emphasis is placed on the formation of moral character, personal discipline, civic consciousness, citizenship training and professional expertise through actual community outreach programs (Student Handbook, 2004).
Nursing education in this University adheres to the conviction that national identity, intellectual pursuit, cultural consciousness, moral integrity and spirituality are significant components in the molding of a professional nurse. This prepares the students to develop professional competency upon completion of the program.
FRAMEWORK
According to Educational Psychology, there is no exact pattern or theory of teaching and learning. Theorists such as Thorndike, Bruner, Piaget, Bloom, and many others, have established their own frameworks of teaching and learning. Nonetheless, education is not an exact science. There are too many variables involved in the process (Owen et al., 1976). Bloom’s design is simple and commonsensical. Thus, for the sake of illustration, Bloom’s Theory of School Learning was used in this research.
In this study, four variables were taken into consideration as possible predictors to the nursing board examination results. These are academic, clinical, guided review and in-house review performances.
Academic performance refers to the grades in the lecture and theory of the following subjects – NCM501200, NCM501201, NCM501202, NCM501204, and NCM501205. Topics in these subjects include the different levels of nursing care (promotive, preventive,
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curative and rehabilitative). These are discussed in the areas of Nursing Fundamentals/
Foundations, Maternal and Child Nursing (MCN), Medical-Surgical Nursing (MS), School Nursing, Community Health Nursing (CHN), Psychiatric Nursing, Nursing Research, Jurisprudence, and Nursing Management and Leadership.
Conversely, clinical performance refers to the grades in the actual exposures of the students to the different nursing care settings. This includes clinical duties or exposures in the schools, communities, hospitals, as well as in psychiatric institutions. This is otherwise known as Related Learning Experiences (RLE).
Evaluation of student’s RLE performance is based on three aspects – the Affective (attendance, attitude and assignments) which is twenty percent, the Formative (skills in different nursing procedures, case studies and quizzes) which is forty percent, and the Summative (term, comprehensive and practical exams) which is also forty percent of the entire grade. In addition to the grades, the number of times the particular subject is taken and the semester it is taken will be considered.
Another independent variable deemed to affect the results of board examination is the Guided Review performance. As part of the curriculum, graduating students have to enroll in this particular subject. This prepares the students for the Nursing Licensure Exam through a series of comprehensive examinations patterned from the board exam. Failure of the student to pass this subject means disqualification from graduation.
The fourth variable considered in this investigation is the in-house review performance. After graduation, nursing graduates are to attend a two-month intensive in-house review provided by the University. Professional reviewers are invited to give comprehensive talks on different areas of nursing after which posttests will be given. The scores or standing of graduate nurses in this review program are believed to predict the results of board exam.
Bloom (Owen et al., 1976) suggests learning outcomes as the level of accomplishment in the learning task and the final component of his theory. Tasks are regarded as goals to be achieved, and the outcomes as indicators of whether or not the goals are met.
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In this study, the dependent variable and what is also considered as a learning outcome is the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) performance. This is considered as the measurement for the graduate nurse’s ability to practice nursing in a safe, proficient and competent manner. Passing this examination means earning a license and the title of Registered Nurse (RN) in the Philippines.
Nursing is both an art and a science. The concept of modern nursing is evidence-based practice (EBP). As a science, possessing its own body of knowledge is very vital. It is the responsibility of the members of the profession to constantly increase and update the body of knowledge through research. It is in this context that this study is conducted.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This study endeavored to find out if the intellective variables among March 2005 nursing graduates to the subject predict the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) performance.
Specifically, the study aimed to: 1) describe the intellective profile of the students; 2) compare the intellective profile of the passers and no-passers of NLE; 3) determine the students’ level of performance in the NLE; 4) evaluate the difference of the passers and non-passers performance in the NLE; and 5) establish the predictors in the NLE performance.
HYPOTHESES
The hypotheses below were tested at 0.05 level of significance:
Ho1: There is no significant difference in the intellective profile of the passers and non-passers of the nursing licensure examination.
Ho2: There is no significant difference in the academic performance of the passers and non-passers in the nursing licensure examination.
Ho3: The independent variables do not predict the students’ performance in the nursing licensure examination.
METHODOLOGY
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Design. This is a descriptive, ex post facto research. According to Polit and Beck (2004), this is one of the two broad classes of non-experimental qualitative research. The literal transition of the Latin term ex post facto is “from after the fact”. This means that the study had been conducted after the variations in the independent variables occurred. Ex post facto research attempts to understand relationships among phenomena as they naturally occur, without any intervention.
Instrumentation. The researcher used document analysis in getting answers to the problems in the study. Documents analyzed included the students’ transcript of records from the Registrar’s Office, the in-house review score sheets from the Review Coordinator, and results of the nursing licensure examination from the Philippine Regulation Commission (PRC).
Population and sample. The subjects of the study were the March 2005 nursing graduates to the subject who immediately took the June 2005 Nursing Licensure Examination. The total population was 292, of which 234 passed and 58 did not pass the board exam.
With the use of Slovin’s formula, sample sizes for the passers and the non-passers was determined separately. Hence, there are two groups of respondents, the passers and the non-passers. Sample size for passers was 147 and 51 for the non-passers. Random sampling, through fish bowl technique, was utilized in choosing the subjects of the study.
Data gathering. A letter of permission to conduct the study was first given to the Dean of the College of Nursing. After permission was granted, the researcher proceeded to get the informed consent of the students through a formal letter. When all the students have agreed to include certain personal information to this study, a letter was handed to the University Registrar to get their grades.
The researcher also approached the Review Coordinator. She gave the researcher a copy of the in-house review score sheets and an official copy of the nursing board exam results from the Philippine Regulation Commission (PRC). After all pertinent data were gathered, they were tabulated, statistically treated and analyzed.
Statistical techniques. To determine the level of academic, clinical, guided review and in-house review performances and
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the board examination performance, frequency, percentage and weighted mean were utilized. T-test was used to measure the difference in the ratings of passers and non-passers and multiple regression analysis to find the predictors in the nursing licensure exam.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 1 presents the distribution of the intellective variables among the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) passers in terms of academic performance. For the first nursing major subject, NCM501200, data show that the majority (64.6%) got the 80 – 84% range. This is equivalent to “average”. About 27.2% got an “above average” grade of 85 – 89% range. Only 8.2% of the passers got a “fair” grade which ranges from 75 – 79%.
Among non-passers of NLE, data revealed that in NCM501200, majority (58.8%) got an “average” grade of 80 – 84% range. The rest received a “fair” rating of 75 – 79%.
NCM501200 is about the fundamentals or foundations of nursing. This is where the basics of nursing is taught and is said to be the easiest of all nursing majors. Topics include the history of nursing, nursing care process, nursing as a profession, scope of nursing practice, as well as the nursing and caring theories. Most of the passers are “average” students, and only a few are “above average”.
For the second nursing major, NCM501201, majority of the NLE passers had an “average” grade of 80 – 84% range and only 5.4% had an “above average” grade of 85 – 89%. On the other hand, most of the non-passers (52.9%) got a “fair” rating and the rest obtained an “average” grade.
From the above results in NCM501201, the number of passers with an “above average” grade lessened. This may be due to the start of RLE or Related Learning Experience. In the RLE, students are exposed in the hospitals, clinics, communities, elementary schools and health centers.
In addition, this subject covers maternal and child health nursing, particularly, nursing care of pregnant and lactating mothers, newborns, as well as child growth and development.
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Students in this level are adjusting to both lecture/theory and clinical experience. They have to juggle their schedule for the two areas so that studying for lecture may be cut short to give room for the RLE requirements.
When they reached NCM501202, most of the passers (54.4%) garnered a “fair” rating of 75 – 79% range, while 45.6% received an “average” rating of 80 – 84%.
Nobody got an “above average” rating. Likewise, among non-passers, most (90.2%) obtained a “fair” rating and only a few (9.8%) with an “average” rating.
Per observation and verbalization of the students, it has been known that the NCM501202 level is the second difficult subject in nursing. Topics consist of medical – surgical and psychiatric nursing.
In particular, the subject delves on pathological conditions of the circulatory, respiratory, integumentary, endocrine and renal systems. Students are expected to master the signs and symptoms, causative factors, prevention, treatment and most importantly the nursing interventions of various diseases.
Added to the pressures in this particular level is their exposure to psychiatric nursing in Davao City for three (3) weeks. According to them, the “Davao experience” involved a lot of stresses since they have had to adjust to the new environment (city, dorm and psychiatric institution), the people (clients/patients, hospital staff, clinical instructors and classmates/dorm mates) and the numerous requirements. These may be the reasons why grades of the students usually drop from “above average” to “average” and “fair” rating only in NCM501202. It has been noted that many students failed in this level.
For the NCM501204 level, 67.3% of the passers earned a “fair” rating of 75 – 79% range and 32.7% earned an “average” rating of 80 – 84% range. The same thing happened among non-passers. About 86.3% of non-passers earned a “fair” rating and the rest got an “average” rating. On the contrary, when students reached NCM501205, most passers (70.1%) as well as non-passers (54.9%) received an “average” rating ranging from 80 – 84%.
Table 1. Academic performance of the respondents in the subjects
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Variable Category Frequency Percentage Mean Rating
It can be gleaned from the data that the NLE passers’ grades decreased in NCM501204 and increased in NCM501205. Based on the interviews from both students and faculty, NCM501204 is the most difficult subject in nursing. It is the continuation the topics in NCM501202 which is medical – surgical nursing care.
Specifically, the subject covers pathological conditions involving the neurologic, oncologic, hematologic, gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary and musculoskeletal systems. They further stated that topics in both NCM501202 and NCM501204 are complicated which requires comprehension, memorization, analysis and critical thinking.
According to students and faculty, although NCM501205 is the last nursing major, it is not a difficult subject. Topics comprised of CHN (Community Health Nursing), Nursing Management and Leadership, Jurisprudence and Professional Adjustment. This
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may be the reason why students usually earned higher grades in NCM501205 than in NCM501202 and NCM501204.
Table 2. Clinical performance among the subjects
Variable Category Frequency Percentage Mean Rating
Table 2 presents the clinical performance of the subjects. In NCM501200, most of the students, both passers and non-passers obtained “average” grades ranging from 80 – 84%. However, nobody
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among the passers received a grade lower than the “average” which is between the 75 – 79% range. Instead, many passers (49%) were able to get “above average” rating.
NCM501200 level is said to be the easiest. Students spend only a total of twelve (12) hours in the hospital and their procedures are limited to doing physical assessments, taking vital signs and doing bedside care to the patients. The rest of the hours in Related Learning Experience (RLE) in NCM501200 are spent in return demonstration in the Nursing Laboratory for basic nursing procedures.
In NCM501201 clinical performance, most of the passers (77.6%) and non-passers (94.1%) earned “average” grades. Nobody among the non-passers received an “above average” rating, whereas 17.7% of the passers were able to get “above average” ratings.
In NCM501202 clinical performance, the highest grade obtained by both passers and non-passers were only the average rating of 80-84%. However, more passers were able to obtain the average range than the non-passers.
In NCM501203 clinical performance, about 4.1% of the passers got an “above average” rating. Majority of both groups of subjects got “average” rating. On the other hand, upon reaching NCM501204, the number of students who got “average” grades lessened in both groups. Most of them obtained only a “fair” rating ranging from 75-79%. In their last clinical performance (NCM501205), majority of both passers and non-passers attained “average” grades.
Furthermore, it can be deduced from the data that both passers and non-passers experienced the same increments and decrements in their RLE (clinical) grades. Yet, if one will compare the grades, the passers still have higher ratings than the non-passers by 1-2 points.
Table 3 presents the guided and in-house review performances of the March 2005 nursing graduates. From the table, it can be gleaned that both groups have the same performance in the 2 reviews. There are passers and non-passers who got below 75 in the guided review, meaning they failed and repeated the subject. Most of them earned only “fair” rating and nobody obtained an “average” grade.
In the in-house review, it can be observed that there are already students in both groups who earned an “average” grade of 80 – 84%.
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Interviews from both students and clinical instructors revealed that they find guided review harder than the in-house review because there are no lectures in the guided review. For every meeting each week, students will hurdle a 100 – item examination for the following nursing areas: fundamentals/ foundations of nursing, maternal and child health nursing, pediatric nursing, medical-surgical nursing, psychiatric nursing, community health nursing, nursing pharmacology, nutrition, nursing management and leadership, professional adjustment and nursing research. During the final term, 5 comprehensive exams (100 questions each) will be given.
Table 3. Guided and in-house review performances of students in the subjects
Variable Category Frequency Percentage Mean Rating
Passers Non- Passers
Passers Non- Passers
Passers Non- Passers
Guided ReviewTotal
70 - 7475 - 79
9138147
114051
6.193.9100
21.678.4100
76.93 76.18
In-House ReviewTotal
70 - 7475 - 7980 - 84
812514147
1732251
5.485.09.5100
33.362.73.9100
77.14 75.55
Notwithstanding the vast coverage of the subject, guided review is taken simultaneously with the last nursing major, NCM501205, both lecture and RLE. Students have to divide there time well for the 3 subjects. On the contrary, in-house review has lectures in all nursing areas. Lecturers usually come from Metro Manila and are known to be experts in nursing. Also, students are able to focus their time for the in-house review since they have graduated already. These may be the probable reasons why students performed better in the in-house review compared to the guided review.
To determine if there is a significant difference in the intellective profile (academic, clinical, guided and in-house review performances) among the passers and non-passers of the Nursing Licensure examination, T-test was done.
Table 4 revealed that with the T-value of 5.23, P-value of 0.000,
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and degrees of freedom (df) of 1.96 at 0.05 level of significance, there is a significant difference in the intellective profile between passers and non-passers of the nursing licensure exam. Therefore, the decision on the null hypotheses (H01) is to reject it.
Table 4. T-Test results on the difference of the intellective profile among passers and non-passers of the nursing licensure examination
Variable N MEAN T-value df St Dev Interpretation Decision on H01
PassersNon-passers
14751
79.0977.57
5.23 1.96 1.741.93
Significant Reject
Estimate for difference: 1.5229195% Confidence Interval of difference: (0.94821, 2.09762)P-value = 0.000
Hartley’s Fmax statistics was used prior to t-test computation for homogeneity of error variances.
Table 5 summarizes the students’ performance in the NLE. In all areas of the exam, the passers obviously performed better than the non-passers. In the first nursing care area, promotive care, the highest grade obtained by the passers is 84% and 79% for non-passers. The lowest score obtained by non-passers is 50% and 65% for the passers. More so, majority of the passers got ratings ranging from 75 – 79%, while most of the non-passers got ratings ranging from 70 – 74%.
In the second nursing care area, preventive care, the highest rating among passers is 89% and 84% for non-passers. However, the lowest rating is 75% for passers and 60% for non-passers.
In addition, most of the passers obtained a score ranging from 80 – 84%, while majority of the non-passers obtained a score ranging from 75 – 79% in preventive nursing. From the data, it can be monitored that students earned higher grades in the preventive care than in the promotive nursing care.
For the third nursing care area, curative care 1, the highest score earned by the passers is 84% while 79% for non-passers. The lowest score among passers is 65% and 50% for non-passers. Moreover, majority of the passers obtained scores ranging from 75 – 79%,
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while most non-passers obtained scores ranging from 60 – 64%.In curative care 2, the highest score attained by the passers is
82% and 79% for the non-passers. Furthermore, the lowest score among passers is 70% and 50% for non-passers. The most common rating among passers is between the 80 – 84% range and 60 – 64% range for non-passers.
In the last nursing care area which is rehabilitative nursing, both groups of students have the same performance. Majority in both groups attained scores ranging from 75 – 79% and the highest score attained is 84%. However, there are still non-passers who received 55% as the lowest score, while the lowest score for passers is 70%.
For the general average, most of the passers obtained ratings ranging from 75 – 79% which is labeled as “low passing scores” based on Palomares’ study in 1997. Still, about 32.7% of the passers obtained general average ranging from 80 – 84% which belongs to the “high passing scores”.
The above findings are in contrast with the study of Palomares (1997) since her study showed that most BSN graduates of Liceo de Cagayan University before the year 1996 attained “high” board exam ratings ranging from 80 – 93%. Moreover, the results revealed that most of the passers performed better in the areas of preventive and curative care 2 with their scores ranging from 80 – 84%. However, they performed only ”fairly” in the areas of promotive, curative 1, and rehabilitative nursing with scores ranging from 75 – 79%.
For the non-passers, majority performed “fairly” in the areas of preventive and rehabilitative nursing, while the rest performed “poorly” in the curative 1 and 2 and promotive nursing. These findings are consistent with the non-passers’ academic grades in NCM501202 and NCM501204.
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Table 5. Nursing licensure performance in the subjects
Variable Category Frequency Percentage Mean Rating
The coverage of curative and promotive nursing care is medical-surgical and psychiatric nursing which is covered in the lectures of these 2 academic subjects where students usually performed poorly.
To determine the difference in the board exam performance among passers and non-passers on the nursing licensure examination, T-test is run.
Table 4 presented that with the T-value of 12.69, which is higher that the degrees of freedom (df) of 1.96, and P-value of 0.000, tested at 0.05 level of significance, there is a significant difference between the performance of the passers and non-passers of the board exam. Therefore, the null hypothesis 2 (H02) is rejected.
Table 6. T-test results on the difference of performance of the passers and non-passers in the nursing licensure examination
Variable N MEAN T-value df St Dev Interpretation Decision on H01
PassersNon-passers
14751
78.9969.68
12.69 1.96 3.676.36
Significant Reject
Estimate for difference: 9.3040395% Confidence Interval of difference: (7.85815, 10.74994)P-value = 0.000
To determine whether any of the intellective variables, singly or in combination, predict the board examination performance, multiple regression was done. The findings indicate that among the four (4) intellective variables considered in this study, only 3 came out as predictors to the board exam results. These three (3) predictors are the academic performance, clinical performance and the In-house review performance.
The regression model of this study, as shown in table 5, explained that the 3 predictors namely: academic performance, clinical performance and in-house review performance affect positively the nursing licensure exam results. This means that the higher the
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academic performance, the higher the chances of passing the board exam. On the other way around, the lower the clinical performance, the lower is the chances of passing the board exam.
The same is true with the in-house review performance. If the student is doing well with the in-house review, the better is his/her chances of passing the board exam. On the other hand, guided review does not significantly predict the chances of passing the board exam.
Table 7. Multiple regression results on the predictors of nursing licensure examination performance
Variables RegressionCoefficient
Standard Error
Coefficient
Tole-rance
Proba-bility
Interpretation Decision On Ho
Constant -114.05 14.01 -8.14 0.000
AcademicPerformance
0.6811 0.2331 2.92 0.004 Significant Rejected
ClinicalPerformance
1.0288 0.1791 5.74 0.000 Significant Rejected
Guided Review
-0.0159 0.2717 -0.06 0.954 Not Significant NotRejected
In combination, however, the three (3) predictors caused only 55.9% of chances of passing the licensure examination. Therefore, 44.1% causes of passing the licensure exam are due to factors other than performances in the lectures, Related Learning Experiences (RLE), and intensive review after graduation. Possible factors not included in this study are the demographic profile of the students, elementary and secondary school performances, attitudes, study
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habits, time management, coping mechanisms and many others. Moreover, the results of this study agree with the findings of
previous researches done by Walag (2000), Famador (2001) and Orong (2004). However, it contradicted with the results of the studies by Ubias (1980), Carlos (1992) and Nicodemus (1982), as cited by Famador (2001).
In summary, how well a student does in his/her lecture class, clinical practice and in-house review after graduation, will affect his/her chances in passing the nursing licensure exam. If he/she is doing well, he/she will more likely pass the nursing licensure exam, but if he/she is doing poorly in the three (3) areas, then he/she will have a poor chance of passing the licensure examination.
CONCLUSIONS
From the above findings, the following conclusions are advanced:
1. NLE passers are usually those students who were performing well in the classroom, during clinical duties and even in the in-house review after graduation. In contrast, the non-passers are usually students who were performing poorly in these 3 areas. Both groups of students, specifically, have the Medical-Surgical Nursing as their waterloo.
2. Passers of the nursing licensure exam have had higher intellective profile compared to the non-passers.
3. Passers of the board exam performance, although they succeeded in hurdling the exam, got “low passing” scores (75-79). The lowest scores were in the areas of Curative Care which comprised Medical-Surgical Nursing topics.
4. Passers obviously performed better in the nursing licensure exam compared to non-passers.
5. The student nurses’ attitude, knowledge and skills in nursing are learned in both the academic and clinical environments. These acquired attitude, knowledge and skills are supplemented by the intensive reviews given after graduation. Once students are performing well in these 3 areas of learning, they have a 55% chance of making it in the board exam. However, there are other
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factors that affect the probability of passing in the NLE.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In the light of these conclusions, the following are recommended:
1. Students should strive to learn the basics and specializations in nursing both in the classroom and in the RLE. They must do their best to really develop and incorporate the attitude, knowledge and skills of nursing as these can help them during the nursing licensure examination. They must also take the added opportunity to gain more knowledge during the intensive reviews before taking the board exam.
2. College of Nursing Administration and Faculty must review and improve the teaching strategies in the classroom and clinical duty, particularly in medical-surgical nursing, since this is the weakest area of the students in the board exam. They must also initiate a remedial program for those who are not performing well in the lecture and in the RLE so as to help them prepare in the board exam.
3. The University Administration must make a policy to increase the passing grade from 65% to 75% and not to allow students to graduate and take the board exam unless they will earn an average passing grade from the nursing major subjects. Students must also be obligated to enroll in the intensive review after graduation.
4. Future researchers may look at the other factors influencing the performance in the nursing licensure exam. These factors may include the demographic profile of the students, elementary and secondary school performances, attitudes, study habits, time management, coping mechanisms, etc.
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LITERATURE CITED
Asperas, C. (2005). Introduction to Basic Nursing Research: Trends, Methods and Applications. Philippines: Guaini Prints House.
Kozier, B. and G. Erb (2002). Fundamentals in Nursing: Concepts, Process and Practice. Philadelphia: Addison, Wesley and Longman.
Liceo de Cagayan University Student Handbook, (2004)
Liceo de Cagayan University, College of Nursing Course Syllabus, SY 2004-05
Owen, S., H. P. Blount and H. Moscow (1976). An Introduction to Educational Psychology. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Philosophy, Aims and Objectives of the College of Nursing, (2004)
Polit, D. and C. T. Beck (2004). Nursing Research: Principles and Methods. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins.
Potter, P. and A. Perry (2000). Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts, Process, and Practice. St. Louis: The C.V. Mosby Company.
Thorndike, R. and E. Hagen (1999). Measurement and Evaluation in Psychology and Education. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
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