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Judith Sadler

Publications and source records attributed to Judith Sadler.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Effectiveness of student admission essays in identifying attrition.

Nursing school admission selection processes exist to select the "best and brightest" applicants assuming that those selected will be successful. However, attrition occurs. Effectiveness of grade point averages (GPAs) and test scores have been reported, while the effectiveness of essays in predicting attrition in undergraduate nursing education has not been reported in the literature. For the purposes of this study, attrition was defined as students enrolled in courses following acceptance into the program who did not complete the program. Data from a retrospective longitudinal sample including 236 students from one baccalaureate nursing program were analyzed for differences between students who completed the program ("completers", n=193) and those who dropped out ("non-completers", n=43). t-tests between the group mean essay scores revealed a statistical difference (t=2.092, p=0.043), while there was no statistical difference (t=0.22, p=ns) between the mean admission GPAs of the groups. Content analysis revealed thematic differences in the essays. Non-completers tended to write about nursing as external to themselves, in contrast to the completers who described an internalization of the role. Answers to questions of motivation for entering nursing and personal experience with a nurse may provide helpful information in selecting those students most likely to complete the program.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A pilot study to measure the caring efficacy of baccalaureate nursing students.

Caring in professional nursing, often described as the essence of nursing, has gained increasing attention over the past several decades. Many programs claim to be based on a caring philosophy and practice. Despite the expectation that graduates of nursing programs will develop relationships with their patients and practice within a caring framework, evaluation of caring competencies is not well developed. The purpose of this pilot study was to measure the self-reported caring competency of baccalaureate nursing students using the Coates Caring Efficacy Scale (CES) (1). Students from prenursing courses to final semester seniors completed the CES (N = 193). Mean scores in this cross-section of students were higher than those reported by Coates for novice student nurses, but slightly lower than those Coates reported for comparable baccalaureate seniors. Final semester seniors identified their families as making the greatest contribution to their development of caring; only a few reported the influence of the nursing curriculum. This study, while limited to students in one program, provides beginning evaluative data of self-reported caring competencies of nursing students.

Adult↗