A Comparison of Practical Nursing Students and Associate Degree Nursing Students in Community Colleges.

Abstract

Beginning nursing students in five Michigan community colleges which offer both associate degree nursing (ADN) and licensed practical nursing (PN) programs completed questionnaires designed to identify personal attributes, reasons for choosing nursing as an occupation and reasons for enrolling in the particular program. The total number of subjects was 538 of which 342 were ADN students and 196 were PN students. The purpose of the study was to determine the degree of difference between the two groups and the potential eligibility of the PN students for the ADN program. Both groups scored high in Masculinity and Femininity on the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, high in leadership potential, and were more altruistic than materialistic. Family members were most influential in choosing nursing while counselors and teachers were minimally so. A large number from each group intended to continue their education with 35% of the PN respondents indicating plans to become RN's, and 62% of the ADN respondents planning to earn a bachelor of science degree in nursing. ADN students were older, more highly educated, and scored higher in Masculinity and leadership potential. There were more males in the ADN programs. The mean reported high school grade average of the ADN students was "B" while that of the PN students was "B-". PN respondents indicated greater significance to being able to contribute to the health needs of society as a motivation for choosing nursing and had a higher incidence of experience as nurse aides. The differences between students in the two programs were generally small. The ADN programs enrolled relatively more students with high grade point averages and relatively fewer students with low grade point averages than the PN programs. However, when the extremes of the distributions are ignored, the two groups of students appear to have been drawn from similar populations. The principle reasons students enrolled in the PN program rather than the ADN program were the desire to give direct patient care, and insufficient confidence in the ability to function as a registered nurse, rather than ineligibility for the ADN program.