Carrie Lynn Abele publishes in Nurse Education Today

Assistant Professor Carrie Lynn Abele, of the School of Nursing, is lead author on an article published in the March 2013 issue of the journal Nurse Education Today, titled A closer look at academic probation and attrition: What courses are predictive ofnursing student success? Coauthors include Associate Professor Barbara Penprase and Rueben Ternes of the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. The abstract to the article is given below.

The purpose of this retrospective study was to identify undergraduate courses that serve as predictors of success for nursing students completing a BSN program. The sample included records of 327 students placed on probation or dismissed from a Midwest school of nursing between 2002 and 2010. Though previous research has shown that science courses can be used as predictors of nursing student success, our results suggest that non-science courses can serve in this capacity as well. In particular, an across-the-life-span fundamental psychology course was found to be an important predictor in determining whether or not probationary students eventually completed the program. These results suggest that nursing programs need to evaluate their programs not only reviewing students success in nursing courses but also in prerequisites beyond just science courses such as chemistry and biology.

Abele is involved in The Caring Studio Experience: En Emerging Educational methodology to Engage Nursing Students in Learning about Caring Practice (see the article from the Fall 2012 issue of The Pulse, a magazine published by the School of Nursing). Penprase is the Crittenton Endowed Professor and the executive director of the Riverview Institute.