Nursing school - reasons for not following through

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In your experience, what have you found to be the most common reason(s) why people do not make it through nursing school? I hear that out of the initial class of 130, only about 22 will actually graduate.

I'm trying to prepare myself - I start school this fall.

Thanks in advance!

Melly

Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

Most of the time, the students fail due to academic reasons. The curricula is rigorous (especially in the ADN programs) and huge volumes of information must be digested FAST. The pace is overwhelming and exhausting. Not only that, then the student must be able to APPLY all of this information with critical-thinking type questions ("higher-order" type questions) on exams. A lot of students are not used to the higher order application questions. They are used to simply memorizing information and then regurgitating it back to the teacher word for word on the exam.

Other times, the students allow anxiety and lack of confidence to get the better of them and they simply lose heart and give up.

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

Most of the time, the students fail due to academic reasons. The curricula is rigorous (especially in the ADN programs) and huge volumes of information must be digested FAST. The pace is overwhelming and exhausting. Not only that, then the student must be able to APPLY all of this information with critical-thinking type questions ("higher-order" type questions) on exams. A lot of students are not used to the higher order application questions. They are used to simply memorizing information and then regurgitating it back to the teacher word for word on the exam.

Other times, the students allow anxiety and lack of confidence to get the better of them and they simply lose heart and give up.

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Specializes in Burn/Trauma PCU.

I'm seeing the same thing, and I'm still in pre-nursing classes, too. My microbiology class started at 30 people; we are now down to 12 and probably less - today is the last day to withdraw without penalty. I've lost my entire lab group!

Honestly, I wouldn't let the high attrition rate frighten you. As with ANY program - nursing, law, English, hula, whatever - you're going to have certain groups of people. One group will be people who find their calling in another field while in nursing school - I actually had the reverse happen to me: I left my music conservatory to come do nursing! :chuckle There are the slackers who will wonder why their PS2 didn't help them pass pharmacology, or why all that beauty sleep during lab didn't make for an attractive grade. There are people who have misconceptions about what nursing really is - a foley catheter, a "whiff of diff", or a colostomy bag is going to freak the hell out of them, and they decide to pursue something else. There are people who have personal events get in the way, like a family member in the hospital or having to take a 2nd or 3rd job to support their family. There are people who run out of money. There are people who just simply decide they didn't really want to do it. There are people who win the lottery (oh, please let that be me...).

But for the most part, you don't have the entire nursing department chasing after you with a stick yelling, "Get out! Get out!" :p I'm sure there will be difficult instructors, coworkers, fellow students, etc... and maybe I'm being an eternal optimist when I say this, but I remember something a professor told me: "You know, we WANT to see you succeed." Maybe other schools are more supportive than others - I don't know, I'm still pre-nursing. But in my musician days, in a school that was more cutthroat than a pirate ship, my professors were doing their best to help us all succeed.

Plus, if you really, really want to be a nurse, you will be. The path you take might look different than you imagined, or you might just sail on through. Either way, same end result. Just keep on keepin' on, and don't let statistics scare you!

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Specializes in Burn/Trauma PCU.

I'm seeing the same thing, and I'm still in pre-nursing classes, too. My microbiology class started at 30 people; we are now down to 12 and probably less - today is the last day to withdraw without penalty. I've lost my entire lab group!

Honestly, I wouldn't let the high attrition rate frighten you. As with ANY program - nursing, law, English, hula, whatever - you're going to have certain groups of people. One group will be people who find their calling in another field while in nursing school - I actually had the reverse happen to me: I left my music conservatory to come do nursing! :chuckle There are the slackers who will wonder why their PS2 didn't help them pass pharmacology, or why all that beauty sleep during lab didn't make for an attractive grade. There are people who have misconceptions about what nursing really is - a foley catheter, a "whiff of diff", or a colostomy bag is going to freak the hell out of them, and they decide to pursue something else. There are people who have personal events get in the way, like a family member in the hospital or having to take a 2nd or 3rd job to support their family. There are people who run out of money. There are people who just simply decide they didn't really want to do it. There are people who win the lottery (oh, please let that be me...).

But for the most part, you don't have the entire nursing department chasing after you with a stick yelling, "Get out! Get out!" :p I'm sure there will be difficult instructors, coworkers, fellow students, etc... and maybe I'm being an eternal optimist when I say this, but I remember something a professor told me: "You know, we WANT to see you succeed." Maybe other schools are more supportive than others - I don't know, I'm still pre-nursing. But in my musician days, in a school that was more cutthroat than a pirate ship, my professors were doing their best to help us all succeed.

Plus, if you really, really want to be a nurse, you will be. The path you take might look different than you imagined, or you might just sail on through. Either way, same end result. Just keep on keepin' on, and don't let statistics scare you!

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I got my bachelors in 4 years, good grades, hardly every studied and had a lot of fun!! Now I changed my mind am back in Nursing school at the community college and can't believe the work load! I've done more work and studying my first semester than I did my 4 years in college. We started with 50 and are down to 30 after 1 semester, so it is scary. But hopefully like others have said if I have the determination I will make it through!

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I got my bachelors in 4 years, good grades, hardly every studied and had a lot of fun!! Now I changed my mind am back in Nursing school at the community college and can't believe the work load! I've done more work and studying my first semester than I did my 4 years in college. We started with 50 and are down to 30 after 1 semester, so it is scary. But hopefully like others have said if I have the determination I will make it through!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

It's soooo fast-paced, especially in the ADN programs, and you really have to be dedicated to studying.

Some of the biggest problems I see in my classes are those students that want test material spoon fed to them. Hand them a critical-thinking test and they fall apart because they can't use the info they've memorized. You CAN'T memorize most of the material, you actually have to UNDERSTAND it.

Add to that the students that whine constantly "It's not FAIR" and think instructors have it in for them when they've done nothing to prepare for labs or clinicals.

And, face it....some people, as much as they'd love to be nurses, just aren't cut out for it.

It's usually easy to pick out the serious students though. They're not always the top grade-earners, but they put forth great effort. And they're MOTIVATED.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

It's soooo fast-paced, especially in the ADN programs, and you really have to be dedicated to studying.

Some of the biggest problems I see in my classes are those students that want test material spoon fed to them. Hand them a critical-thinking test and they fall apart because they can't use the info they've memorized. You CAN'T memorize most of the material, you actually have to UNDERSTAND it.

Add to that the students that whine constantly "It's not FAIR" and think instructors have it in for them when they've done nothing to prepare for labs or clinicals.

And, face it....some people, as much as they'd love to be nurses, just aren't cut out for it.

It's usually easy to pick out the serious students though. They're not always the top grade-earners, but they put forth great effort. And they're MOTIVATED.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med-surg.

It was my experience, in Nursing School, that there were way too many students who had been honor students in high school, and thought they could just sail thru Nursing school with no problem. I had minimal skills in science (I am really stronger in English, vocabulary and such). Most of the students who dropped were shocked when they were unable to ace the classes. I worked part-time and studied more than I ever had in high school; I even took a course on how to study! (which helped tremendously), and I graduated with honors, not that it matters, but it was meaningful to me. I will pass on to you what my nursing instructor gave to me; "How bad do you want it?" Good luck with your career!

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Specializes in med-surg.

It was my experience, in Nursing School, that there were way too many students who had been honor students in high school, and thought they could just sail thru Nursing school with no problem. I had minimal skills in science (I am really stronger in English, vocabulary and such). Most of the students who dropped were shocked when they were unable to ace the classes. I worked part-time and studied more than I ever had in high school; I even took a course on how to study! (which helped tremendously), and I graduated with honors, not that it matters, but it was meaningful to me. I will pass on to you what my nursing instructor gave to me; "How bad do you want it?" Good luck with your career!

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Specializes in Renal, Haemo and Peritoneal.

After reading all the posts husker-nurse got it in a nutshell!

"How bad do you want it?" quote

This IS the TRUTH!

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Specializes in Renal, Haemo and Peritoneal.

After reading all the posts husker-nurse got it in a nutshell!

"How bad do you want it?" quote

This IS the TRUTH!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
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