Why do students fail?

SFCardiacRN · Mar 26, 2006

I think the number one reason is not working hard enough. Nursing school is VERY difficult and the grading scales are higher than most students are used to. By the time they figure out how much studying needs to be done, they have fallen too far behind to catch up. My class lost 50% first semester, some by only a few points. Some were LVNs and EMTs and a couple had baccalaureate degrees in other fields. They were smart enough to pass but did not put the time in.

BoonersmomRN · Mar 26, 2006

I think it's all the reasons you stated and more.

We have lost 6 Fundamentals students so far. 2 for personal reasons. 3 felt it was not what they expected and 1 who just couldn't get the hang of the tests and was failing really bad.

I think a lot of people just aren't prepared for the amount of time NS takes up. Our instructors told us....but it's hard to believe until you are in the middle of it. They also told us the questions would be NCLEX style...but a LOT of people have no idea what that means and were really blown away by the tests. It's also a bit of a " sink or swim" in clinicals where I am....I expected it but I had classmates who "sunk" badly before they swam...they did all swim though:)

all4schwa · Mar 26, 2006

the main reason that i see students fail is that they don't realize how much time nursing school takes and are not willing to make it the number one priority....it's the only way

allthingsbright · Mar 26, 2006

I think the number one reason is not working hard enough. Nursing school is VERY difficult and the grading scales are higher than most students are used to. By the time they figure out how much studying needs to be done, they have fallen too far behind to catch up. My class lost 50% first semester, some by only a few points. Some were LVNs and EMTs and a couple had baccalaureate degrees in other fields. They were smart enough to pass but did not put the time in.

I think I agree here...what I saw from people who "failed" wasnt lack of smarts necessarily (although there was one girl who seemed really "out of it" mentally) but instead it was not keeping up with the work. Like, no motivation and then too little too late syndrome?

I think we were all like "hey, you guys are dumb" but not dumb in the unintelligent use of the word. More like they just had no motivation and discipline. (I am saying that cuz there is a debate on another thread about "dumb" students.) One girl failed Funds and then went on to graduate with A's and B's cuz she got her act together. She def wasnt "dumb" but she sure did act dumb her first semester (no paperwork at clinicals, didnt practice her skills so failed check off, didnt study for exams).

So, thats my thought!

MIA-RN1, RN · Mar 26, 2006

I am in the last semester and there are several people who are repeating it--almost across the board they are LPN's who are returning to school after working for some time. I was talking to one and she said that book nursing is so different from real-world nursing. She was answering test questions based on what she would do/has done/has seen done vs what the instructors are telling us.

I think it depends also on what semester as to what reason. First semester, people realize they don't want to do it/don't want to work as hard as required/or just can't handle it for various reasons.

We didn't lose many second semester( Med Surge) that I am aware of.

Third semester was maternity/psych and psych seems to lose a lot. Its hard, and vague, and if you don't have your critical thinking cap on by then you are lost.

This semester--4th and last, the LPN's are one group. There are also some students that I know that have lower averages than they've ever had before. The material is more indepth, the expectations are pretty high, and we are all coming off a relatively non-clinical semester of psych/maternity. This semester is back to the IV's and flushes etc., and if you didn't get it during the first med-surge semester, you are REALLY toast here. Plus, the exams are worded harder, there is a huge amount of material and only 40 questions on each test and people are getting burned out and having trouble studying.

I don't know if any of that helps but its how I see it. We started with 99 seats and there are something like 84 now, but that also includes the LPN's who tested in during the second semester and anyone who failed and was readmitted. So I am not sure how many we've lost total.

RnMay06 · Mar 26, 2006

Im my opinion I think there are a lot of different reasons....some have already been listed, not realizing how much work is involved, wasnt sure what they were getting into etc. I think another big reason is instructors! In my program we had a lot of "tenured" staff. MANY just seemed like they didnt care anymore, many others hadnt been working nurses for so long they were a bit out of touch with what was going on! When we would have a class average test of barely passing or not passing at all, rather than reflecting on what they could have possibly did wrong in teaching the material, it was "Im dissapointed in your grades!" We also had on teacher recently where you could show her in the book where she was flat out wrong and she REFUSED to look at it. I dont think that is a true teacher!

Some clinical instructors also let you more than know they dont want to be there! This doesnt help at all.

This is just from my experience. I think nursing instructors, whether they are tenure or not, should be evaluated by the students they teach (at our school they were exempt from this) and should have to take hands on skill and material testing if they no longer practice to make sure their skills are current. They should also find clinical instructors who WANT to be there!

Good luck on your report and in school!

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Mar 26, 2006

What do you think it the main reason that nursing students fail from NS? I ask this as it is part of an oral report I have due in my ethics class.
Family? Difficulty with critical thinking? Dissatisfaction with Clinicals? Employment?
What are some of your opinions?

Well, obviously there are many reasons, but just a few stick out at me: those who have failed the clinical skill evaluations *usually* were so nervous and had such a lack of confidence that they couldn't get through them correctly. Meaning, usually, that if they were under pressure and stress with a patient load, they would be more likely to screw up.

Those who were booted from the clinicals themselves had made egregious errors. Patient safety, mostly.

Those who failed academically fell into two camps: Those who didn't make the grades because they just couldn't (hey, not everyone CAN get these grades!) and those who could have, but were slacking off too much and for too long. Those students skated through pre-reqs while (sometimes) bragging about their lack of need to study, only to find themselves failing nursing tests.

We also had a cheating problem in our school for the first semester. It caused everyone who was NOT cheating alot of angst, and the instructors needed to proctor us like unruly children during exams to watch out for trouble. Eventually, though, the cheating crew (while not getting caught red-handed) just were not ABLE to cheat in second semester, and failed academically.