How much of your cohort did you "lose"?

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in Hospice.

So my school has two campuses, small community college, and we have about 85 people between the two campuses who are part of the ADN class of 2015. People have told me that nursing school loses sometimes 25% or more of the cohort before the first semester ends! Is this true? Did you experience this in your class? I just don't understand how that happens. You work so hard to get in, you pay so much, and you don't see it through. Why does this happen? I'm not judging anyone who this happened to, I'm just trying to understand the phenomena. Opinions?

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Why do people leave the program. There are many reasons. They didn't realize the time and commitment required to stay in the program, they failed the class, they failed clinicals, they realize they just don't like it, financial reasons, family reasons.

The first semester is usually the weeding out semester. It's not uncommon at all. Its much less common someone drop out/fail out in later semesters, while it does happen, its not in the numbers that it happens in Nur 101.

During LPN school we started with like 66, by the end of the first semester I'd say 1/2 were gone for all the reasons I listed above. During my RN program, I started in the 3rd semester of 4 so I'm not sure how many they lost but we did lose quite a few to one particular class (but ONLY from one professors lecture class).

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Specializes in Med/surg, Onc.

I started my ADN program on two campuses with a total of 88 students. I think we lost about 20 people the first semester. We've lost a few more here and there for various reasons but we are starting our final semester at the end of next month and I think there are 55 of us left. A few people went part time after the first, second or third semester, some had to retake a class or couldn't progress due to other reasons.

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We started with 32, lost 2 within the first three weeks of school. Three semesters later we still have 30... I am learning that this is uncommon.

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When I taught in an ASN program we routinely admitted about 25% more students than we needed because we knew in about three weeks our offices were going to be full of weeping students who were voluntarily leaving the program without flunking first. They all said something like, "I always wanted to be a nurse like my mom/auntie/cousin/Cherry Ames," and had no idea what they would do with their lives after they dropped that dream.

Unfortunately there was really no way to tell which of the otherwise academically-qualified students were going to be that way; it wasn't a matter of admitting too many random people just so we could flunk them out. It would have been a delight if they HAD all stayed... but experience was against that.

The major reasons were they didn't know how hard it was going to be, they thought it was all fluffing pillows and "following doctor's orders," they didn't realize nursing has rigorous demands for autonomy and critical thinking, they just found out they couldn't bear the thought of touching a naked body (especially the elderly), because they discovered that they couldn't handle seeing/smelling feces/urine/vomitus, they didn't realize how much hard science and math nurses needed to learn, or they were going to have to do adult health as well as "mother-baby" in school.

I think that may answer your original question, because I don't see anything like it in this thread so far.

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This is something I looked at because some programs around here have very poor retention rates. Makes you nervous to spend all this time and money to join a program where only half or less may finish. I know some schools had a "rep" for weeding students out or having various issues with faculty.

The ABSN program I am applying to has the highest of all the BSN programs at ~94%. The ADN program I've already gotten into used to have a 42% retention rate but this is when they had a waitlist. Last year they switched to a point system and so far they've kept 84% of their students the first year.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Hospice.

We lost a lot all the way up through Sophomore year. Mostly it was because they didn't pass the prereqs. One student in first semester Soph failed Anatomy twice, and was failing Micro and Assessment. Last fall, half of my class (who are all very intelligent and made it all the way to Junior year), failed Peds lecture. We had over 60 start Peds/Maternity, but only 35 or so went on for Adult Med Surg I. I do know that at least 2 left the program after that, not sure about the rest. One more semester to go, and I'm still terrified I'm not going to pass Critical Care.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Thank you for your comment, I will pray for you! I hope you do well!!

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Specializes in Hospice.

Yup! :yes: Thank you!

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We started with around 120, lost about 20 after the first semester. We just finished the second semester, and I know we've lost at least a couple, but I won't know for sure how many until classes start again in a month.

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We started with 41, I think, and lost about 6 or 7 (accelerated BSN program). I think there are two people who are in an alternative program now (only taking half the number of classes each semester).

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We started with about 100 students, second semester we will only have 70. I'd say 90% of our lost students failed due to our pharmacology course.

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