Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
12-1987
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Major Professor
Carroll B. Coakley
Committee Members
George W. Wiegers Jr., Robert K. Roney, Bill Radcliff
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to evaluate criteria utilized for admissions of students to allied health programs in community colleges in Tennessee. Following an evaluation of existing criteria, modifications were made to make the criteria adequate to serve as guidelines for admissions of better prepared students. The new guidelines were then rated as to importance in the admissions process. The Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.) - Paramedic program. Medical Records Technician program, Physical Therapy Assistant program, Radiologic Technology program, and the Respiratory Therapy program were the five programs included in the study.
Five questionnaires containing criteria for each respective program were sent to panels for each program area. Panels were made up of those program directors who conduct accredited programs of the same discipline in other states. Panel members in each respective prograun evaluated each criterion as to whether the criterion was adequate or inadequate to assure that a better than minimally qualified student is admitted to that program. For a criterion evaluated as inadequate, the panel members modified that criterion to make it adequate. Following receipt of their evaluation, modifications and revisions were made to a total of 16 of the 25 criterion items compiled from the five programs. Eight were evaluated as adequate and one was excluded from the list as recommended by the panel for that program.
The revised criteria were then returned to each panel for rating, on a five-point Likert-type scale, the relative importance of each criterion in the overall admissions procedures of students to those programs. Means were calculated from data returned in the rating and the items returned a second time for the panel to re-rate, change or modify the first rating.
Based on results of the study, the guidelines as developed were either considered important to approaching very important for each criterion in each program area in admissions of better prepared students. One exception was found. An American College Test (A.C.T.) score of 18 in social sciences was rated as unimportant for admissions of students to Radiologic Technology programs.
Recommended Citation
Stone, Donald Ralph, "A study of the admissions criteria for allied health programs : and the development of guidelines to reflect admissions of better prepared students. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1987.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/12173