Curious About Drop-out Rate In Nursing School

[CeilingCat]

Our class started out with 72 students. Like most schools, it's a competitive program which takes 1-2 years of pre-Nursing school pre-req's to get into.... so the assumption is only the most dedicated will get in.

Between 1st and 2nd semester we lost THIRTEEN students! Some didn't pass. At least two I know of were pregnancies/births.

One classmate commented to me that he heard our school's drop-out rate by the time graduation came around was 60%.

Is it normal to have so many students not make it?

[bookgirl667]

Just finished my sixth week; out of my original class of 165, 5 students have already dropped out. I assume this will continue as the program gets more intense, especially since a passing grade is a 77 and the instructors have said that they will make the tests more difficult with each passing semester.

[ksw1978]

Our class is about 36 I think, but I already foresee at least 3 students failing by Christmas as they're not passing exams with over 77% and one in particular has tried copying my work in clinical because she hadn't done it beforehand.

[MNVikings]

Most nursing schools fail at a C....I know mine requires 78% or better to pass each class. You also need to get at least 78% in theory separate from lab/clinical for each class. Most theory portions of the classes only have 3-4 exams...so if you do poorly on two you most likely won't pass. You also only get to be "readmitted to the program" one time. I think we had 35 in the beginning and were down to 25 by the last semester...then we had a few return to retake the class which brought us to 30.

[Hello_Pretty, RN]

The director of our program is very blatant about the fact that she doesn't care who finishes, just that she has a decent total number and a decent NCLEX pass rate. We have to take 10 ATI tests throughout the 2 years, and if we do not pass each one, we are out of the program. We also have a weird grading scale that is moved up.

Sounds like my school! All they see are numbers and not students eager to learn and be great nurses!

[caliotter3]

One nearby program had an excellent reputation statewide. At the same time it was no secret that 50% or more of each class failed out. While I would have welcomed the high level of instruction, I couldn't see jeopardizing success from day one. Imagine I was not

the only student to make that decision when accepted by another program.

[TheSquire, DNP, APRN, NP]

Sounds like my school! All they see are numbers and not students eager to learn and be great nurses!

If you won't pass the NCLEX, it doesn't matter how "eager to learn and be a great nurse" any student is. That said, if you won't pass and they know it, they shouldn't admit you in the first place.

[Hello_Pretty, RN]

If you won't pass the NCLEX, it doesn't matter how "eager to learn and be a great nurse" any student is. That said, if you won't pass and they know it, they shouldn't admit you in the first place.

But it is SCHOOL. They're supposed to prepare students to pass NCLEX. It takes a lot of preparation to pass NCLEX (2+ years), and admissions assessments and GPA and all that other good stuff are good indicators of success, but if a school cannot prepare a student (and it shows in their passage rates) then the school needs to reevaluate their program/teaching.

I hear every week from my director about "the BRN says we're deficient here and there so we're going to implement changes." Like adding DocuCare so we can electronically chart (except we pay $130 and NEVER use it); they just want to show the BRN they're compliant but the changes haven't actually helped the student.

[TheSquire, DNP, APRN, NP]

But it is SCHOOL. They're supposed to prepare students to pass NCLEX. It takes a lot of preparation to pass NCLEX (2+ years), and admissions assessments and GPA and all that other good stuff are good indicators of success, but if a school cannot prepare a student (and it shows in their passage rates) then the school needs to reevaluate their program/teaching.

I hear every week from my director about "the BRN says we're deficient here and there so we're going to implement changes." Like adding DocuCare so we can electronically chart (except we pay $130 and NEVER use it); they just want to show the BRN they're compliant but the changes haven't actually helped the student.

You're not wrong; many nursing schools fail to implement changes fully and are more than happy to take borderline students' money for a few semesters rather than actually teach them and help then succeed. That said, said schools are also more than willing to take students who probably won't pass, give them a few semesters to surprise, and then fail them when the inevitable happens. It's not until the Board of Nursing (which is what I think you mean by BRN) imposes penalties for low pass rates on schools that programs with this model change.

[Hello_Pretty, RN]

In CA it's the Board of Registered Nursing and schools have to maintain 75% pass rate.

[lemonstolemonade]

Wow, my class only had 2 leave out of 70, and one was for personal reasons

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

It's hard to say. The traditional RN program lost an entire class between people failing. I think we lost maybe 20 people in the first to second semesters but some people have to repeat a semester. Then third semester we started to be combined with the LPN to RNs and people could take classes at different times. Not to mention some lectures are online if people opt for it.