[janfrn]

I think it's a bit of a mixed bag. The academic expectations are very high and there are some who flunk out. Then there are personal factors, for example an unplanned pregnancy or a financial disaster. The clinical angle doesn't seem to weed out as many as it might... judging by the numbers of "I hate nursing, why did I ever do this" posts in the First Year forum. But then there isn't as much emphasis in clinical performance as there used to be and people with NO clinical skills are graduating. Some people get halfway through and realize they aren't cut out for it, so they change streams. Happened to both my daughters, though not in nursing. The oldest was in a pre-med program for a year and is now a geneticist, the younger one was in sports and exercise science for three years and is now a judicial clerk. For whatever reason though, between 10 and 20 percent of people who start a nursing program don't complete it.

[linzz]

Thanks janfrn for your input. It's interesting, one of my clinical teachers who was a BSN felt that she could have used a lot more clinical time and less classroom time in order to function as a floor RN. I guess this will always be an issue in nursing.