Failure rate of nursing schools.

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What is the failure rate of your nursing school? We were told that most were 50%! With ours it's been at least that.

Alvindudley:

What school are you in?

A few years ago I graduated from a large ADN program at my local community college. I would guess that out of everyone who started, about 50-60% of us did graduate as scheduled. We also had LPN students join our class in the 2nd year, and we would also have students join who had failed that class the year before (so they didn't have to re-do the entire program, just start back at the class they failed out of and move forward from there).

One thing that program did was watch what things statistically predicted failing out of the program. It turned out that the number one thing that predicted students' grades was how much they worked outside of school. As a result, they developed a policy that you could not work more than 20 hours/week while you are in the program. And I found this to be true as well- I had several friends who started out doing very well in nursing school, and then thought they could start a new job and do just as well- and every single one of them either did fail out or came extremely close to failing out before they learned their lesson.

Quite honestly, when I am a patient in the hospital and my life is in a nurse's hands, I want it to be a nurse who knows her stuff, not a nurse who just tries her best but was too busy working to have time to learn everything she needed to learn in nursing school. I'm not very sympathetic to people who say they have to work 20+ hours/week for the money, and that is their excuse for being too busy to learn the material. If you need the money, take out a student loan, or check out the grants and financial aid programs at your school.

Too many people think all you have to do to become a nurse is pass a series of classes, and if the classes are too hard for you to pass, then something is wrong with them. Nursing is making life-or-death choices, and if the schools are too easy, then they are graduating people who are not capable of making these choices. I have friends in medical school & PA school, and their programs do not allow them to work whatsoever, and they are literally at the library until midnight every night - 7 days a week.

One more thing I want to say- being a nurse is the most grueling and difficult job I've ever seen or done. It interferes with your ability to eat and sleep at normal times, and usually you are lucky if you get to use the bathroom more than once in a shift. And that's not even counting all the weekends and holidays you spend away from your family, and the fact that even when you are home, you are so exhausted from working that you don't have the energy to really enjoy the time you do have with your family. I love this profession, and it can be very rewarding, but it is NOT for the faint of heart. My hardest days and weeks in nursing school were a breeze compared to even a week of working as a nurse now. Nursing school is a piece of cake compared to being a nurse, so if people can't cut it in nursing school, I strongly question if they would be able to cut it as a nurse.

Specializes in MICU, ER, SICU, Home Health, Corrections.
A few years ago I graduated from a large ADN program at my local community college. I would guess that out of everyone who started, about 50-60% of us did graduate as scheduled. We also had LPN students join our class in the 2nd year, and we would also have students join who had failed that class the year before (so they didn't have to re-do the entire program, just start back at the class they failed out of and move forward from there).

One thing that program did was watch what things statistically predicted failing out of the program. It turned out that the number one thing that predicted students' grades was how much they worked outside of school. As a result, they developed a policy that you could not work more than 20 hours/week while you are in the program. And I found this to be true as well- I had several friends who started out doing very well in nursing school, and then thought they could start a new job and do just as well- and every single one of them either did fail out or came extremely close to failing out before they learned their lesson.

Quite honestly, when I am a patient in the hospital and my life is in a nurse's hands, I want it to be a nurse who knows her stuff, not a nurse who just tries her best but was too busy working to have time to learn everything she needed to learn in nursing school. I'm not very sympathetic to people who say they have to work 20+ hours/week for the money, and that is their excuse for being too busy to learn the material. If you need the money, take out a student loan, or check out the grants and financial aid programs at your school.

Too many people think all you have to do to become a nurse is pass a series of classes, and if the classes are too hard for you to pass, then something is wrong with them. Nursing is making life-or-death choices, and if the schools are too easy, then they are graduating people who are not capable of making these choices. I have friends in medical school & PA school, and their programs do not allow them to work whatsoever, and they are literally at the library until midnight every night - 7 days a week.

One more thing I want to say- being a nurse is the most grueling and difficult job I've ever seen or done. It interferes with your ability to eat and sleep at normal times, and usually you are lucky if you get to use the bathroom more than once in a shift. And that's not even counting all the weekends and holidays you spend away from your family, and the fact that even when you are home, you are so exhausted from working that you don't have the energy to really enjoy the time you do have with your family. I love this profession, and it can be very rewarding, but it is NOT for the faint of heart. My hardest days and weeks in nursing school were a breeze compared to even a week of working as a nurse now. Nursing school is a piece of cake compared to being a nurse, so if people can't cut it in nursing school, I strongly question if they would be able to cut it as a nurse.

For those unfortunate enough to have to work, not qualifying for a loan, school is tough, and even tougher based on the amount of work one has to do outside of school. I'm so sorry your life has been so easy as to make you think nursing is the toughest thing going. It isn't.

Oh, and you're usually not the one making life/death decisions, it's a team effort in most places.

To the point;

I attended an ASN program at a community college and worked my way through. It sucked for sure and would have been much easier had I done it back when daddy was willing to pay for it, but I just call it another feather in my character hat.

Anyway, our class usually starts with around 70 and graduates about 60. NCLEX passage rates are 98-100% with the average testee reporting 80-90 questions at exam.

My NCLEX was 76 questions at cutoff, but again, I had a family to support and the only options were to work and try to make it, or just don't go at all. I chose to work and go.

I suggest practice with the HESI, or similar exam as much as possible, as many times as possible.

rb

My BSN program started with 54 students and after the first year we lost 6....but gained 6 from the year before.

Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

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