What percentage of those accepted to BSN programs flunk out on average?

purplekath · Apr 10, 2004

In your experience when people "fail" what tends to be the biggests problems?

I'm sure it varies, but what I've observed so far is that a LOT of people seem to show up to nursing school thinking that it's all Florence Nightingale and mopping fevered brows at the bedside....and they really do expect it to be easy. They expect that if they are caring and devoted to the idea of nursing, then they will pass. When they realise how much HARD WORK is involved, they are not prepared for it.

Of the ones I've seen drop out (a LOT) this is the biggest reason. Also, a lot of people come to nursing school thinking they can hold down fulltime jobs and juggle already full lives while trying to pass...works for some, but doesn't work for many people who try.

Overall, if you are prepared to put the work in and tackle it as a fulltime job, then you should be fine :-)

mitchsmom · Apr 10, 2004

I would say that we lost about 10 out of 80 after the first semester (just a guess). But that includes all reasons, some people may have gone to live with their grandmother in Iowa for all I know.

I agree with purplekath,

Overall, if you are prepared to put the work in and tackle it as a fulltime job, then you should be fine :-)

orrnlori, RN · Apr 10, 2004

I think the biggest reason for failures in my class was not passing the lecture exams. We had several really good and intuitive people who would have made good nurses. But the excruitiating tests (had to pass with a 78) killed them. Some lost out by only a point or two. Seemed like everything else could be mitigated somewhat (well, other than the med-calc tests, they had to be 100%).

LeesieBug · Apr 10, 2004

We have 140 in our class, and have only lost a couple this first year. Most of the people who are gone left for reasons other than failing.

Overall, "flunking out" is not a big problem. I suppose we will see how things go next year, as acedemically it is supposed to get much more challenging.

mitchsmom · Apr 10, 2004

PS... I do know that at least one person flunked our final physical assessment last semester (and we only had to pick abdomen, respiratory, neuro, or heart out of a hat!).

Mithrah · Apr 10, 2004

My suggestion to you is to seek out an ADN program. I currently attend an ADN program and it is very realistic for everyone to pass. Some students have dropped out or failed, but not because the program was super tough.

Our school does not have those stupid "checkoffs". Those make students VERY nervous and of course students aren't going to do a perfect job. What matters is they get clinical experience with instructor supervision and that what they do is safe practice.

Good luck on whatever you choose.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Apr 10, 2004

We lost more students through dropping out and burning out than actual failure. In fact out of 60 of us, no one failed, but about 10 or so dropped out for various reasons.

lilbiskit78 · Apr 10, 2004

At my school, we lost 8 out of the 30 that started with us the first semester. Most of them failed the lecture classes.....I think it was the way the tests are, you know all right answers, which is the BEST! It is a big change from the memorization in the pre-req classes. Our school generally only graduates about half of the starting class...however we have 100% pass rate on NCLEX...so the ones who make it are strong I suppose. If you are interested in nursing, go ahead and give it a shot....you never know what you can do until you try! Good luck!

Love767 · Apr 11, 2004

So do you think the test questions are "tough but fair" or " a crapshoot" when it gets down to the "best two" possible answers. By that I mean is there an answer that most of the instructors (competent ones anyway) could agree upon if they discussed the exam answers amongst themselves or is a matter of opinion or preference in which case you would need to read minds.

orrnlori, RN · Apr 11, 2004

This is just my experience so please take it as such. There were usually at LEAST two correct answers to questions and many times more. At review time, I could sometimes see why one answer was more correct than the other, but in maybe 30% of the questions I felt (and still feel) it was a crap shoot. I simply got better at picking the answer depending on which instructor wrote the question. Let me give you an example.

We had one instructor that when she lectured she would always give a list of 8-12 items under a topic, illness, action, etc. One of normal intelligence would assume that the first 3-5 items are always the most important on a list (think priorities!). But what we found was that this instructor would invariably list what she thought was more important near the end of the list soooooo, when one was memorizing that instructor's lecture, one would concentrate on those last 5 items, rather than the first 5. Of course, you had to take many hits on her exam questions before you learned how she would write the test questions. Remember here, you aren't another nursing instructor, so what other instructors may think about it is null and void. You don't know any better because you are a student. Other teaches did the opposite. It was a game. What still perplexes me in nursing questions is that the possible answers provided are not the ones you face in real life nursing. Also, your books may list some things a priority but the instructor lists other things as priority, so which is more correct? Go with what the instructor put and they will sometimes point to the book and say you didn't do your reading. AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH! :angryfire

I graduated 6 years ago, and I still remember how excrutiating some parts of nursing school was. Is it doable? Yes. Is it "fair". No. Do the questions truly reflect real life nursing? Only minimally. But to be fair, I work with a surgeon who brings his laptop to the OR and while the residents are working, he sits and writes exam questions for medical students. In reading over his shoulder, I have many times been amazed at the same tricks on his tests as were reflected in nursing exams. Two or three correct answers.

Best answer I can give you is to KNOW IT ALL and you'll be safe. And the main thing to remember is that this will not be like any other classes and tests you've ever had before. There is no correlation between them. They stress critical thinking but it is no such thing in my humble opinion. It's you developing their way of thinking, which may be well contradictory to your innate thoughts of common sense. When I graduted, I went back to using common sense and it has served me well.

belladelicious · Apr 12, 2004

I'm only in my first semester, so I'm sure the numbers will rise...but we started with 50 students. 2-3 dropped, for unknown reasons. Overall, there's probably 7-10 who have dropped. I know one dropped b/c he didn't like it. But, I think the majority dropped b/c they were failing the theory part. The only reason to fail theory, is you're not studying enough, anyone can memorize (this first semester stuff is easy imo)

Also a couple of people have dropped 1 or 2 classes, and are taking an easy class, so they'll be behind. But, hopefully they'll do better next semester.

If you get 3 Unsatisfactories in clinical, it's an automatic course failure. You can get a U from a checkoff, being late to clinical, wrong uniform, not being prepared for clinical,etc... I know a few people who are walking a fine line with that. So I may see a few students fail b/c of the clinical component. But, maybe b/c it's first semester, most people are doing pretty well in clinical.

Our graduating classes usually have around 20 people. So, I'm guessing at least 50% of the students who start the first semester don't end of graduating.

Also, if you don't pass the HESI you can't graduate. You get 2 chances. I know a few ppl in that situation right now. I guess this is how it is at every school right?