title: An investigation into the opinions of nursing faculty toward the RN/RPN licensure exams.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate opinions on the RN/LPN licensure exams held by nursing faculty teaching at vocational nursing schools, community nursing colleges and full universities. The research process consisted of questionnaire construction and major study phases. In phase I, faculty members were chosen from one community college and given tape recorded interviews which were then transcribed. Interview data were analyzed and yielded the inventories of the opinion and attitude towards the RN/LPN licensure exams. Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance was used to test the content validity and yielded w = .18 (p < .01) for opinion and w = .42 (p < .01) for attitude. Cronbach's Alpha was used to test internal consistency and yielded 0.84 and 0.69 respectively. In phase II, nursing faculty members were chosen from all levels of institutions offering nursing degrees in Taiwan. The responses for item opinion towards the RN/LPN licensure exams ranged from 22-65 with a mean score of 47.61; while responses for attitude towards item constructors of the licensure exams ranged from 11-29 with a mean score of 19.16. The attitude towards the RN/LPN exam constructors had significant negative correlations with age, clinical experience, and teaching experience, but had significant positive correlation with opinion towards the items on the RN/LPN licensure exams. There was significant negative correlation between the opinion towards the items on RN/LPN exams and clinical experience (p < .05). The faculty members with experience in item construction for the RN/LPN licensure exams showed a significantly greater negative opinion in the attitude towards the RN/LPN licensure exam constructors compared to faculty without experience in item construction (p < .01). A significant difference in scores of attitude toward the RN/LPN licensure exams was found with different faculty educational levels and different teaching positions within the various types of institutions (p < .01). Further studies to engage in item analysis for the RN/LPN exam are recommended.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Portwood
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Hsia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004506:Education, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008004:Licensure; D008875:Middle Aged