Academic predictors of success in a nursing program.

The academic content areas that best predict success early in a nursing program affect admission and placement decisions in nursing programs nationwide. The purpose of this research was to apply a multiple regression model to student test scores to determine the relative strength of science, mathematics, reading, and English content areas in predicting early nursing school success. Using a standardized nursing entrance examination, the subtest scores of these four academic areas for 4,105 registered nurse students were used as the predictors in the regression model. Performance on a standardized Fundamentals of Nursing assessment was the criterion variable. Results confirmed those found in the majority of the literature indicating that science is both a statistically significant predictor and the strongest of the four content areas in the prediction of early nursing program success.