Advisor
Hummel, Faye
Advisor
Clukey, Lori
Advisor
Wilson, Vicki W.
Committee Member
Weiler, Spencer
Department
Nursing
Institution
University of Northern Colorado
Type of Resources
Text
Place of Publication
Greeley (Colo.)
Publisher
University of Northern Colorado
Date Created
5-1-2011
Genre
Thesis
Extent
146 pages
Digital Origin
Born digital
Description
College enrollment, retention, and graduation rates for ethnically diverse students remain lower than the rates for Caucasian nursing students, thus affecting the number of diverse professionals working in health care. Previous research has focused on a variety of internal and external factors that might possibly explain some of these disparities. Self-efficacy, which is the belief in one's ability to perform various tasks, has been established as a key predictor in academic success. Low academic self-efficacy has been identified as one possible contributor to lower than expected rates of academic achievement. However, no research investigating the role of self-efficacy in the academic progression of ethnically diverse nursing students has been identified. This study examined nursing academic self-efficacy and nursing clinical selfefficacy among ethnically diverse nursing students to determine whether these factors were significantly associated with academic progression from the first semester to the second semester of a nursing program. The sample consisted of 878 first year Associate of Science in Nursing and Bachelor of Science in Nursing students in state nursing schools who were enrolled in this study; 82% were Caucasian and 18% reported being ethnically diverse. No racial differences existed between the two groups in nursing academic or clinical self-efficacy scores. However, logistic regression analyses indicated iv while academic self-efficacy was a significant predictor of progression for Caucasian students, it was not a predictor of success for the ethnically diverse students in this sample. Nursing clinical self-efficacy was not a significant predictor for either group. Further, ethnically diverse students had an 82.5% lower odds (â = -.175; p < .001) of progressing to the second semester compared to their Caucasian counterparts after adjusting for the other covariates such as self-efficacy, age, marital status, employment status, vicarious experience, mastery experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological state. These findings suggest that factors other than self-efficacy need to be examined to determine the predictors of academic retention among ethnically diverse students. Lack of ethnically diverse students in nursing poses a challenge to the provision of culturally competent care in the rapidly growing diverse American society.
Degree type
PhD
Degree Name
Doctoral
Language
English
Local Identifiers
Lewis_unco_0161D_10075.pdf
Rights Statement
Copyright is held by author.
