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.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, LTC.

we started with 52 in January, we are now 16.

Specializes in ICU.

I am outright floored by some of these experiences you guys have shared! I'm only in my 3rd week of nursing school, so my experience is minimal, but so far I am pretty happy with my program. The retention is quite high, don't have the exact %, but few people outright fail the program. I can't believe that a BON will regulate NCLEX pass rates, but turn a blind eye to a school that fails over half of it's student body.

I also don't believe that a school with extremely high failure rate is simply weeding out those who shouldn't be nurses. More like the only ones who are able to exceed in their program are those who are better at self-teaching. Schools are there to educate and provide support and guidance, not just throw a bunch of material at you and hope something sticks. JMHO anyways...

My class started out with 150 students, and 60-something of us graduated in May. I believe the NCLEX pass rate for our school is somewhere in the 95-98% range.

I agree with the poster who said self-teaching is huge in nursing school! Use the material your professor presents as a jumping-off point, but be prepared to do a lot of research on your own.

Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

For my class...0%...and so far only one person that I know of has failed the NCLEX but passed the second time (one guy still has to take it, keeps putting it off). I am not sure but maybe it is because our school uses a merit system to get in that we have such a hight pass rate.

The school I attended has had a 100 percent NCLEX pass rate for the first time taking test for both LPN and RN boards for 3 years running. The down side is, when I started the LPN year we had close to 50 students. Of that around 30 or so passed and moved on to RN year. Of those 30, we had 21 that graduated. Thats less than 50 percent make it through school but everyone passed boards. They like to brag a lot about that stat, but the 50 pecent fail rate from start of LPN to ADN degree to me is awfull.

In May, I graduated from an ADN program. We had a 80% retention rate... we started out with 25 and graduated with 20. Also, we had a 100% pass rate on NCLEX this year. From reading some of these post, my school has their act together and I have nothing but awesome things to say about their program. I think the success is due to making the standards higher to be accepted to the program such as CNA I certification before beginning, BIO or CHEM, and a competitive ranking system.

Specializes in scrub tech 3 year, Circulator 2 years.

I recently graduated from Trinity College of Nursing and Health Sciences and they have a great record of passing NCLEX> Last year was 100% and this year off those who have taken it which is most all have passed. They prepared us very well. They continually texted us in the style of NCLEX using ATI. I checked other schools in the area and it has the best pass rate. Was it hard? HECK yes but worth it.

Specializes in Renal/Cardiac.
We enroll approximately 120 new students per year in our BSN or Direct Entry MSN programs. Our failure rate for classes is under 1%.

For the Direct Entry MSN program, we had had only 1 student with poor grades in the past four years (of 110+ who enrolled). The NCLEX passrate is 98% for this period.

Our BSN failure rate us also approximately 1% (some years no one, some years 1 of 100). The NCLEX passrate was 92% last year for the traditional BSN. We enroll students directly from high school into the BSN and do not require TEAS or ATI for any students.

I know we have to take the NCLEX_RN once we finish the ADN program but I had no idea we had to take the NCLEX-RN for the BSN program (I am already an RN and I am going for my BSN now) but the program made no mention of having to retake the boards for the BSN portion

The school I go to is a very small branch...we only have 2 nursing instructors and the LPN program and the ADN program take a max of 9 students a year. When I first started in the ADN program there were 9 of us. We (meaning 7 of us) knew that at least one student wouldn't make it past the second week just because of her history. We were right, she stopped showing up after the first week. We then lost a second student about 3 weeks in. We aren't sure why he stopped as he only had a skills class and clinical and all his other first semester classes were done. We were down to 7. By the end of the first semester we were down to 6 because one student failed pharm. By the end of the second semester we had all made it through. Sadly our class only graduated 1 by the end of the second year. This however was not due to failing as we only had the one student that failed pharm the first semester. One student decided to take a year off and save some money working as an LPN and the rest of us decided to go part-time. I am proud to say I will be graduating in Dec. and the program I am graduating from is a great program. We only have one class that has a horrible pass rate, and I chose to take that class online through another school. Our clinical instructors are great as are the theory instructors. Our instructors told us at the start of our second semester, you are still here because you have what it takes to make it through the program. The girl that failed pharm has also failed another class. I will truely be surprised if she makes it through as she is about to have a second child in about 2 weeks and tends to like to do other things rather than study. Our school has now implemented new classes that you must take if you fail a core class and you have to pass them before you can retake the core class. I think it's a great way to "weed out" the weak.

My school's NCLEX pass rate for the RNs averages around 88-90%. I am told that is slightly higher than my state's average.

I don't know our dropout rate. Is that something schools have to disclose?

Drop-out rate may be affected by other factors and may be more due to the population who is going to that particular school. For example, some programs are mostly working adults who have to juggle 1-2 jobs, family, and other responsibilities. We already lost at least one student, 2 weeks into the semester, when his wife announced she wanted a divorce & was kicking him out.

Pass rate is also not necessarily a sign a school is better or worse, since the school decides when they're ready to sign off on your taking the exam (at least that's the way it is here). My school also upped the percentages students need to get A,B, and C grades, to classify more marginal students as D's (fails) than would happen in other majors. And at the same time, I am concerned that marginal students have no safety net at our school. If you're struggling, it's up to you to figure it out. They don't even have tutors-for-hire available.

So if you're looking at failure rate to decide on a school, I'd say visit the school's program and decide for yourself if your like their approach, faculty, how clinicals are done, etc. Every school is a little different, and you need to find a school that's right for you.

I guess I'm lucky... my school does a 2-year program, and the last night class had about a 75% pass rate for the course and a 100% pass rate for the NCLEX. The instructors are fantastic. They put a ton of work into the program, and they are very accessible. I couldn't ask for a better program.

Specializes in Critical Care, Clinical Documentation Specialist.

I went to the BSN info session at the University I am applying to and they said they have a graduation rate of 95%. They said it goes up if you take into consideration the next graduating class because some people who fail a class can retake it the next session. They also have over a 90% NCLEX pass rate (97% so far this year). The director of the program said they will do everything they can to help you stay in the program. For example, they had a student taking chemo during school and they helped her pass.

BTW, this school has 4 of the top MS specialties in the country so they are definitely on the ball.

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