Had orientation today for RN program...heard something disturbing.

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Today, I just got back home from my orientation for my RN program. It's an ADN program, and after two hours, they had the second year students come in and speak with us and answer questions we had about the program.

The way my college is set up, is it is a single program, that is a collaborative effort of three colleges under a single director. It's an ADN program. So basically there are nursing students on three different campuses.

One of the 2nd year students said that the other two colleges participated in collaborative testing. That when a test was administered, you take it alone, it's graded, and then they are given back to the students...then the students get in groups of four, and they collectively make corrections...you put down the names of everyone in your group on your paper, the group grade is an average, and that is the grade you get...which is usually much higher.

This is the problem.

This student said that College A and B (that did the collective testing), had a 10% dropout rate, while our school (which is supposed to be part of the same program) had 50% fail out of the last semester because they did not participate in the collective testing.

If the dropout rate was that high...would the faculty even TELL the students that? Should I just chalk this up to a nasty rumor?

I am curious...but my instincts tell me that this isn't a question I should ask a faculty member.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

I do not know how you should interpret the rumor. However, just to let you know, faculty at many campuses do not discuss drop out rates. My school will not discuss the stats with anyone. Students have found out through talking with each other that ours is higher then 50%. It is not idle gossip... we know how many started and how many dropped out, then did the math. GL.

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I heard that drop-out rates for most nursing schools are high... People have different reasons for quitting or failing. However, it seems to be that at the school I'm going to, they have a really high bar so the fail rate is high, but because they weed out the students that aren't doing well, the NCLEX pass rate is around 99% My friend said that on her first day of class, the teacher said to expect around 10 students less by the end. All we can do as students is to give it our best shot and hope we make it to the end...

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I appreciate the comments.

Our Director was talking about some of the standards, such as statistically if you work more than 15 hours per week, your chances of being successful will significantly decrease.

In the same breath that these students are telling me how virtually impossible everything is...both of them are "advising" us that it is possible to work a full-time job and go to NS, because both of them were doing it. I personally, don't want to gamble.

Of course...that sounded oxymoronic.

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i agree with sgmanda, you just never know the reasons people drop out. In our class we started out with 80 students. then lost about i wanna say 10-15 but as the semesters went by, we picked up other students that had failed in previous classes and came back to join OUR class, not to mention the Students that were already nurses (ADNs) and joined our class to finish up..so we ended up graduating 77 students. so its hard to tell the %s but like they said..faculty won't share this information...

then, the class thats currently in their last semester at my school..pshh they lost more than half of the class...sooo really..don't worry about the percentages...focus on not being part of that statistic. :)

i'm sure you will do fine.

If i can do it, so can you. lol

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My school was very up front. They told us they only took one in four applicants, the class topped out at 60 students, and to expect about half the class to drop out/fail. They also had the highest pass rate in the state for boards, and no one had failed for the previous ten years (this was when I was a prospective freshman).

Pretty much everything they said was true. We started at 62, graduated 36, and everyone passed boards. This was back in the Stone Age, though. Maybe these things aren't discussed these days.

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Specializes in Rural Health.

Oh....there are a million reasons why people leave NS.

We started out with 56 but graduated with 48 but somewhere in the mix we picked up LPNs and students that had failed previously, but then lost some of those for various reason.

I think someone finally figured out we started with 56 in our original class and out of those 56, only 30 of us graduated.....so we were pretty close to that 50% drop out rate. Some failed, some left, one was kicked out for cheating.....LOTS of different stuff happened.

We had a 98% pass rate with our class too.

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Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Medsurge.

This may be off subject but I was listening to Glenn Beck radio talk show early morning host. Usually he makes me laugh out loud and I enjoy his views even if they are a bit more conservative than my own. What happened? He said that the reason there is a nursing shortage was due to the fact that most Americans don't want to do nursing, it's beneath them! LOL I had to right him (and write him) and set him straight...nursing school waiting lists and high attrition rates...That's the problem Glenn, that's why foriegn nurses are coming over here!!! Nursing is a respectable profession and most folks I know are either jealous or awed by how much of a struggle it is just to graduate a nursing program.

My soap box, sorry....;-)

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i started my class with 66 students and graduated with 22/23.

our nclex pass rate was near 100%.

this was a 3 yr diploma program.

don't know if that makes a difference.

but i do know that most flunked out, rather than quit.

leslie

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The meeting that we had was extremely positive. They didn't talk about statistics at all...they talked alot about making compromises, being committed, developing good study habits, etc.

They are even putting us through a specialized training next week specifically on how to quickly read through large volumes of material and get what you need out of it...which Lord knows that would be a valuble tool. They are also going to do our learning styles (which I have done years ago), but the difference is they are going to tell us in great detail about how each of us need to learn material, specific to nursing, to help us work with our learning style.

I'm going to focus on not being a statistic. I'm not working at all, and I am very fortunate to be able to do that. I have my children in daycare also part-time, so that frees up hours and gives them social interaction as well...which makes me feel better b/c they really enjoy their days at "school".

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I'm all for everyone getting a fair chance, unless it isn't involving peoples' lives.

If students cannot keep up with the workload then I don't care how caring and compassionate they are, I don't want them out on a floor with lives in their hands.

Nursing school is not something to play tiddely winks with, and I'd find out about that group scoring system. Then, I'd notify the newspaper.

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This may be off subject but I was listening to Glenn Beck radio talk show early morning host. Usually he makes me laugh out loud and I enjoy his views even if they are a bit more conservative than my own. What happened? He said that the reason there is a nursing shortage was due to the fact that most Americans don't want to do nursing, it's beneath them!

Just curious: On what day did he say this? His shows are posted on his website, and I'd like to listen. If you could tell me the day and the hour (roughly), I'd apprecate it. Thanks.

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