Predicting success in a pre-registration nursing program

This article describes a pilot study which was carried out to determine whether, a relationship existed between either the matriculation scores or the biological science background of beginning student nurses, and their academic success in the three year pre-registration nursing program at Royal Adelaide Hospital. Information was obtained from the academic record cards of students who commenced the program in 1985. Statistical analysis using the Pearson r and Two-sample T-test indicated a positive correlation between matriculation scores and academic results in each of the three years of the course. Surprisingly only 6 of the total number of students (N = 119) had not studied biology at matriculation level and hence analysis of this subject as a predictor of success was not possible.