Abstract
The need for approximately one million nurses by the year 2020 has placed unprecedented pressure on nursing programs to graduate more registered nurses. The anticipated nursing shortage, growing need for nurses, high attrition rates, limited clinical sites, and limited nursing faculty have led academic researchers to evaluate admission standards in an attempt to identify students most likely to succeed in a nursing program. Most researchers have evaluated outcome measures at the end of nursing programs compared to NCLEX-RN pass rates. Other researchers have attempted to correlate and predict NCLEX-RN pass rates with pre-admission nursing aptitude test scores. Few researchers have evaluated the correlation and predictive validity of pre-admission nursing aptitude test scores with early academic success. The purpose of this study was twofold: first to examine relationships between the TEAS test and success in first-year nursing courses and ATI Course Mastery Tests, and second, to evaluate the potential of identifying at-risk students early in the nursing program and the development of remediation based on the students weaknesses identified by the TEAS. This was a correlational study investigating 218 baccalaureate nursing students in a selected university nursing program. Predictor variables included the components and subcomponents of the TEAS test while criterion variables included final grades and ATI Course Mastery Tests in first-year nursing courses. Data results indicated that Reading, English, and Science were predictors of success in first semester courses. Subcomponents of the TEAS score indicate remediation could be designed based on specific student weaknesses identified early in the nursing program. The variance accounted for was low; however, the Pearson r was suppressed by low data variability because the data sample was strictly from students accepted into the nursing program.