Date of Award
Spring 1949
Document Type
Thesis - Restricted
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Nursing
Abstract
Whether or not it would be feasible to utilize the conventional credit system of academic bookkeeping as a means of indicating achievement in efficiency, competence, and educational accomplishment as a result of specified numbers of clock hours of field experience in nursing is still a much disputed question among leaders in education. The problem requires analysis. Experience has proven that the system has its advantages and its disadvantages. Studies made by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement to Teaching indicate that the "American system of quantitative measurement of education in terms of the credit hour is unsatisfactory." The American Council on Education deplored the conditions which prevailed in regard to the granting of college credit, immediately after World War I. In those years colleges literally competed in the amount of credit hours allowed. Credit was awarded on the basis of time-serving alone, without relation to educational competence. The writer is aware that nursing education withes to avoid such educational unsoundness and indiscriminate granting of college credit in the evaluation of field experiences in nursing. Nursing Education has advanced along with the progress of medical science, and nursing practice, which includes a wide variety of activities that are pertinent to educational development, holds collateral educational import and adds substantially to the educational competence of the students who are enrolled in the curriculum. However, this experience is educative only in proportion to the readiness of the individual student to comprehend, interpret, and apply the basic scientific, sociological, and ethical principles in practical situations. To determine whether field experiences might be measured and expressed in terms of credit hours, the writer studied the conventional norms of the credit hour system, the current use of the credit hour system as a means of measuring educational outcomes of field experiences, and the possibility of its future use in measuring achievement in professional nursing through field experiences.
Recommended Citation
Raupp, M. Ottonella, "Evaluation of Field Experiences in Terms of Academic Credit" (1949). Master's Theses (1922-2009) Access restricted to Marquette Campus. 3670.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theses/3670