The ability to write logically and coherently is essential for nurse anesthesia (NA) students in order for them to be successful in graduate school. In addition, abstract concepts applicable to advanced practice are crucial for NA students to understand and apply during clinical situations. NA students, however, are often unaware of the need for or the importance of these cognitive skills. Using Thorndike’s classical learning theory, Connectionism (Connectionism, n.d.) as a guide, the purpose of this study was to assess NA applicants’ written goal statements and their relationship to successful writing in a first semester graduate level nursing theory course. The study had four distinct phases. First, all currently enrolled NA students’ goal statements from a large Midwestern School of Nursing were obtained and were assessed for their quality of writing on a 3-12 point Likert-type scale developed by the investigators. Next, the NA program faculty developed a 0-3 point scale for the purpose of evaluating new applicants’ goal statements. During the third phase, both the study investigators and the NA faculty evaluated the written goal statements of newly admitted NA students. A high correlation was found between the investigator scale and the NA faculty scores (r=.546, p=.016, r2=.296). Following completion of the first semester graduate level nursing theory course taken by newly admitted NA students in Fall 2004, the final phase of the study will correlate final nursing theory course grades with the written goal statement scores. Based on those results, implications for nursing education and NA practice will be discussed.
Session #1219 - Poster Session I
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)