Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Respiratory Care Student Enrollment, Retention, and Success on the National Board for Respiratory Care Credentialing Examinations

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the COVID-19 pandemic and the instructional changes implemented in response to it affected student enrollment, retention, or success on the National Board for Respiratory Care credentialing examinations at an associate degree respiratory care program in the state of Texas. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of student enrollment, retention data, and graduate success rates on the National Board for Respiratory Care credentialing examinations were used in this study. The data were collected from an associate degree respiratory care program in Texas and included 69 graduates for the 5-year study period. The 3 academic years that led up to the COVID- 19 pandemic served as a pre-pandemic baseline for comparison. The cohort of 2019-2020 was labeled early pandemic, the cohort of 2020-2021 was labeled mid pandemic, and the cohort of 2021-2022 was labeled late pandemic for data comparison purposes. Descriptive statistics, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Mann-Whitney U test were used for data analysis (P <.05). RESULTS: The number of program applicants significantly decreased between the pre- and late-pandemic groups (P 5.001), but overall student enrollment (P = .42) and retention (P = .95) were not significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first-time pass rate on the Therapist MultipleChoice examination low-cut score (P = .005) and high-cut score (P = .007) were significantly reduced in the mid-pandemic group when compared with the previous cohorts. There were no statistically significant differences in the demographic data or online questionnaire responses from the early- and mid-pandemic groups. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic and the instructional changes implemented in response to it decreased students' first-time pass rate on the Therapist Multiple-Choice examination in the mid-pandemic group compared with the preand early-pandemic groups.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the data of student enrollment, retention, and success rates in respiratory care credentialing examinations at an associate degree program in Texas. The findings indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic and instructional changes resulted in a decrease in first-time pass rates for students in the mid-pandemic group compared to the pre- and early-pandemic groups.