Nursing Student Attrition and Retention Strategies: Please share your experiences!

Whispera, MSN, RN · Jun 1, 2015

Factors influencing high attrition rates where I work include (my opinion):

--There is no interview of students before they are accepted, nor any essay requirement.

--Students who take classes at other schools, that don't have high standards, are accepted without being required to take the TEAS or Writing/English/Math tests. Grades from the other schools only have to be passing, which includes Ds.

--Services for students are lacking and/or off campus, such as counseling and tutoring.

--The library is extremely basic on campus. For a more comprehensive library students have to work with an online source or find other library sources.

--There is no one on-campus who is an expert in computer technology.

--There are no courses or segments of courses that focus on APA or medication calculation. Writing classes don't focus on writing for nursing. Students are left to learn these things on their own.

--Some courses are taught at too high a level for the students and there is a huge failure rate in them.

--Students have multiple life pressures that interfere--family, jobs, lack of support

Wendy906 · Jun 1, 2015

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[TD=align: left]Hello Whispera, I hope you are well!

It is interesting that many of the factors you perceive to be associate with student attrition are the same for the faculty at my institution. However, our students are ranked according to GPA and scores on the TEAS-V exam (for admission purposes). I have suggested including student interviews but I was informed that this might constitute discriminatory practices, as our college is an open-access institution. I have also suggested to require students to submit essays but have been told that this would not be feasible because our admissions committee is too small (lacks the man power to review the essays).

We have a faculty resource nurse devoted to exams reviews and tutoring for our students. In my campus, I am considered the technology support person (a scary thought :). Additionally, I have been placing increased emphasis on APA style for our students. A colleague and I have implemented a writing and APA workshop for the past couple of years. Despite all of that, our attrition rates remains at 50% (or above). Since some of the strategies are different between your institution and my institution, I am curios to learn what the attrition rate at your institution is. Do you teach in an ADN or BSN program?

Thank you for sharing your experiences and perspectives on the issue,

Wendy

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Whispera, MSN, RN · Jun 1, 2015

Hi Wendy. I don't know the attrition rate. That would be for the administration, and that's not my role. I do know many fail courses and some courses have a reputation for being extremely difficult to pass. I believe more than half of the students in one course, this past semester, dropped or failed it. That says to me that there is a big problem.

I believe prospective students have to reach a particular score on a rating scale that gives points for TEAS and other admission criteria, unless they have credits from another school. So far, ranking within that rating scale hasn't been a factor since we haven't reached the maximum capacity for students yet.

I teach in an ASN program. Before this I taught in a 2 BSN programs. Neither had attrition or retention problems, from my point of view.

Wendy906 · Jun 1, 2015

Hello again!

Thank you for the additional information. The full-time faculty members where I work attend a monthly meeting with the dean and other support staff. There we usually discuss retention and attrition issues as well as NCLEX scores of our students.

I have worked as Adjunt faculty in a RN-BSN program and an Accelerated BSN program and I got the sense that these programs did not experience the same attrition rates (that's just based on my perceptions).

Thanks

Wendy

SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS · Jun 2, 2015

This is a topic of great interest to me as I live in a "majority minority" urban area; yet, our nursing profession is so not representative of the population whom we serve. The ADN program in which I teach has minimal entry requirements, but our graduation rate is higher than you would guess due to lots of support, including: available tutoring (for pharm, writing, math, etc.), strong learning resource staff, small class sizes, high standards, and amazing faculty support (our dean is wonderful as well, lots of faculty development and support). All of these are necessary to help our students achieve their best.

Whispera, MSN, RN · Jun 2, 2015

Wendy, have students attended your APA and writing workshops? We have had those, as well as dosage calculation workshops, and no one came. When asked, students say they can't come due to work schedules and family responsibilities, which are real conflicts. We've also had skills practice sessions and extra simulations that would be helpful, but again, time conflicts prevent participation.

We have student tutors for pre-reqs and one lovely faculty member who tutors for nursing courses. The faculty member makes herself available as much as she can, but student time requirements interfere with the time they can spend with her. Students who have passed courses are not allowed to tutor nursing courses, with school support, for whatever reason. Some do tutor outside school permission, but there aren't enough or a large enough variety of tutors available.

Wendy906 · Jun 30, 2015

Hello SHGR, MSN, RN!

Thank you for sharing your experiences at your institution. My institution is an open-access institution and so many of our students require many remedial/developmental courses. Even though our the admission to the nursing program is selective (based on GPA and admission test scores), our attrition rate remains at (or above) 50%. I think that all of the support your program provides for your students are likely to be effective in achieving student success. Do you know what the nursing student attrition or graduation rate is at your institution?

Thank you for your reply to my post,

Wendy

Wendy906 · Jun 30, 2015

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[TD=align: left]Hello Whispera, CNS!!!

Yes many of our nursing students attend the APA workshop (specially our first semester students). We usually scheduled intimately following lecture to improve attendance. We put it on the schedule at the beginning of the semester and we emphasize that attendance is expected. We also have a resource nurse/tutor that helps our students and it is vey well attended. She usually has a review session every Friday. She also puts a blank schedule on her door for one-to-one review sessions and students often fill up the blank schedule right away. I think that part of that is that our students are only allowed to fail a nursing course once and then they are dismissed from the program. For that reason, most of our students take advantage of resources provided.

Thanks for your post,[/TD]

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Wendy

Natasha A., CNA, LVN · Sep 7, 2015

This is a topic of great interest to me as I live in a "majority minority" urban area; yet, our nursing profession is so not representative of the population whom we serve. The ADN program in which I teach has minimal entry requirements, but our graduation rate is higher than you would guess due to lots of support, including: available tutoring (for pharm, writing, math, etc.), strong learning resource staff, small class sizes, high standards, and amazing faculty support (our dean is wonderful as well, lots of faculty development and support). All of these are necessary to help our students achieve their best.

Thanks for sharing this because as a student I can say that true having a support system within your school is truly important. It's heartbreaking when you are not doing good in a course and the first thing the faculty say is "Is this not for you?" and when a student hears that it makes them sometimes give up and not pass the nursing program.

Natasha A., CNA, LVN · Sep 7, 2015

Wow that is really good! I am in a nursing program and we have what is called "tutorial" for students to attend for extra help. Well I truly believe it depends on the teacher and the way they teach. I can say that I stopped attending because whenever I would ask the teacher for specific information about a body system or NCLEX question, the teacher rambles about "their" personal experience and never really answer the question. Or if you're having trouble with dosage calculations, the teacher says "Its easy just do it in your head" it makes a student not want to attend tutoring sessions anymore and find it a waste of time. If only their was a teacher with a skills and compassion to see that we are students and feedback is the best way of learning. I would had love to attend your school Whispera with all those great resources :)

We have student tutors for pre-reqs and one lovely faculty member who tutors for nursing courses. The faculty member makes herself available as much as she can, but student time requirements interfere with the time they can spend with her. Students who have passed courses are not allowed to tutor nursing courses, with school support, for whatever reason. Some do tutor outside school permission, but there aren't enough or a large enough variety of tutors available.