Carolyn Merriman:

Carolyn Merriman is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Testing Center.  In addition to coordinating mandatory student testing for the CON, she also works as a Family Nurse Practitioner in the Washington County Schools, is the coordinator of undergraduate pediatric theory classes, and she has developed and teaches two different success courses for students identified as at-risk.  Her current research examines at-risk students’ progression and completion of the nursing program, and evaluates the efficacy of CON interventions.  In a 3-year longitudinal study, Mrs. Merriman demonstrated that interventions, like success courses and tutoring, do have a positive effect on at-risk students’ retention and graduation rates. 

In July, 2007, Mrs. Merriman presented her research under the title “A Collaborative Program to Support At-Risk Students” at the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Conference in Vienna, Austria.  Within the last year, she has also presented data regarding students and testing at conferences in San Diego and Montreal.  Mrs. Merriman will publish her research soon; and, she was second author on an article that will be published in Computers in Nursing later in the fall, 2007. 

For more information on Mrs. Merriman, her work with at-risk students and student testing, and her previous research, please contact her at: merrimac@etsu.edu.  

2006 July. Undergraduate Nursing Program. Symposium presentation at the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Conference.

2006 July. Obtaining Evidence of Reliability and Validity for Computerized Examinations Used in Graduate and Undergraduate Nursing Programs. Presented at Sigma Theta Tau International.