Curious About Drop-out Rate In Nursing School

Nursing Students General Students

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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?

Actually we lost them evenly all of the way through except last semester.

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Only the cream rises to the top! You have to be the best to be a nurse.

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

i vividly recall that in my paramedic class at ucsd in la jolla one of the truly brilliant fellows in our class dropped out due to stress in the last week. his preceptors absolutely despised him, so they literally & honestly drove him right over the edge. i will never forget that as long as i live. unbelievable.

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I think the pass rate was like 30% for the whole program. It didn't have anything to do with who was smarter, or who knew more. It was more like who could pass all the crap they threw at us. A lot of it was immoral, like one girl passed, but they changed her grade AFTER she found out she passed so she "failed". Also, we have clinical instructors that fail just because they don't like a student, or don't get along with one. Try to talk to as many people that have been in the program as possible, before you start!:pntlft::dzed:

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My school has a terrible retention rate, but from reading these posts, it seems like it is not uncommon. We have an NCLEX pass rate that varies from high 80s to 90%, depending on the year. When I was looking at this school, I asked the director what the recidivism rate was, and she replied 20%. Little did I know that the 20% was not who started and who finished. We started with 60 students last year. Now we have 40 of the original students, but my school is one of the few schools that takes transfers and LVN-RN step up students, so they replaced those 20.

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.

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The program I am is similar. During our first semester we lost about 8 people,second semester about 5. At the beginning of third semester LPNs and EMTs can transfer in. We also lost about 4 people that semester. Our program has higher than a 90% success rate. We also use ATI and have to pass. Those who do not pass have an opportunity to remediate.

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Specializes in NICU.

My program started with 40, and starting into our last semester we have 33. We didn't lose anyone during Foundations. We lost 2 during med/surg (and gained 2 who had failed and retook med/surg), 9 failed 3rd semester (either Peds, Pharm II, or both), 2 appealed and sort of won, and we gained 1 who had retaken Peds. 4th semester was Psych/Community, and we lost no one.

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Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

We started with 72 and only lost 1 in the first year. Then again our program had a merit based acceptance rate of less than 5%, so they screened people on the front end. Our NCLEX first time pass rate is in the 90s.

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what's your college name?

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I think the pass rate was like 30% for the whole program. It didn't have anything to do with who was smarter, or who knew more. It was more like who could pass all the crap they threw at us. A lot of it was immoral, like one girl passed, but they changed her grade AFTER she found out she passed so she "failed". Also, we have clinical instructors that fail just because they don't like a student, or don't get along with one. Try to talk to as many people that have been in the program as possible, before you start!:pntlft::dzed:

I appreciate your honesty and good advice

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We have a 90% retention rate and a 95% NCLEX pass rate within 90 days of graduation. Been recognized for this by the state of Texas and very proud of it :)

what is the name of your school!?

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER, Cath lab.

We started with 33 and graduated 14! All of us passed NCLEX first try

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