ACCELERATED VERSUS TRADITIONAL NURSING-STUDENTS - A COMPARISON OF STRESS, CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

A high demand for graduate nurses and a dwindling pool of nursing scho ol applicants have led several collegiate nursing programs to adopt in novative programs to increase the number of eligible applicants. One o ption is the development of accelerated nursing program. Because of th e relative newness of these programs, the need to ascertain data about accelerated students and their success in these programs is vital. Th is prospective study examines the differences in stress levels, critic al thinking ability, and performance of traditional and accelerated nu rsing students. A voluntary convenient sample (n=94) was used from nur sing students enrolled in the Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) program. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Scale of Judgmental Abilitie s were used to measure the two independent variables. The grade point average in nursing courses and the National Council Licensure Exam sco res were employed to measure performance of students. Results revealed that accelerated students showed consistently higher stress levels th an those of the traditional students. Moreover, the accelerated group had significantly higher grade averages in nursing courses than tradit ional students. Implications for nurse educators and recommendations f or further studies were made.