Why Do People Fail Nursing School?

As much as I hate to say it, we had instructors that would try their best to get you thrown from the program if they didn't like you. They would ride students until they were in tears or would up and quit. Of course, it has been nearly 17 years since I have been in school, but I doubt things have changed too much.

Nurses "eat their young" in the hospital setting, wht not in the classroom?

another big reason students fail or drop courses is that there is too much going on in their life for them to put the necessary concentration into school, i.e. long work hours, family issues, money problems, health issues, taking too many credit hours, poor/non-existant/non-effective study habits, lack of sleep/down time where you don't eat-sleep-talk nursing. : /

With the accelerated programs people have told me that some did not fully understand how fast they would cover material. Also, some found nursing was not what they wanted.

Congratulations on getting into a program. Which one are you going to? I just got accepted too :)

It would be a good thing if nursing schools put more useful information into their pre-nursing orientation programs about what nursing school is REALLY like. Students would be better prepared to do well in the program if they know ahead of time how many hours they need to put into studying, practicing in lab, preparing care plans and concept maps for clinicals, traveling to the clinical sites to get patient assignments, etc every week.

During my freshman year there was a huge auditorium full of new nursing students who were real excited to begin after hearing all these wonderful things about the program, but most of us were not prepared for what was thrown on us during the first semester. Many students I started with thought that all they would be doing in clinicals is giving shots, dressing wounds, and charting notes. They weren't thinking about the 'messy' parts of bedside nursing, and when they got into the clinical area they would freak out about things like wiping butts or cleaning a colostomy. Many of them had no idea that nurses are expected to do these things and they left voluntarily very early in the program.

Also, we didn't know how to answer 'critical thinking' questions, and we were also led to believe that the clinical instructors would hand-hold us and teach us all the clinical skills before asking us to perform them in the hospital. No such thing, babe! They showed us only the basic stuff, and we had to spend hours studying and practicing in lab every week on our own. As for those nursing questions, Everyone did badly on the first coupla exams. Of course, after that first semester, the number of students who dropped or failed out was about 50%, and the number dropped again by about another 50% after the second nursing class. The instructors didn't seem to care. All they would say is that its up to us to buy a book about how to answer nursing questions and study the rationales until we got it down.

Some students come in thinking it will be easy because they assume that all they have to learn is how to do basic patient care. WRONG!!! Nursing school hogs a lot more time than many new students think possible, and this is perhaps the biggest reason so many people fail or drop out.

As much as I hate to say it, we had instructors that would try their best to get you thrown from the program if they didn't like you. They would ride students until they were in tears or would up and quit. Of course, it has been nearly 17 years since I have been in school, but I doubt things have changed too much.

Nurses "eat their young" in the hospital setting, wht not in the classroom?

I graduated from an LPN program 12 years ago, and from an RN program four years ago. I found the above to be the case both times.

Also, there are some who are just in over their heads in nursing school.

Congratulations on getting into a program. Which one are you going to? I just got accepted too

Congratulations to you, too! I'm going to U of M Ann Arbor.

Some students come in thinking it will be easy because they assume that all they have to learn is how to do basic patient care. WRONG!!! Nursing school hogs a lot more time than many new students think possible, and this is perhaps the biggest reason so many people fail or drop out.

This makes sense. I've been working about seventy hours a week and going to school part time for the past two years, so I'm hoping that I'll be prepared for a hectic schedule. I'm almost looking forward to being able to focus on one specific task (school) when I'm in--I won't be working.

When it comes to critical thinking questions, what would be the best prep for acclimating to these prior to the start of the program? Most of my classes thus far have been very objective-oriented, where you're given a series of facts and definitions and have to regurgitate them for exams. Critical thinking would obviously require more depth and understanding....

When it comes to critical thinking questions, what would be the best prep for acclimating to these prior to the start of the program? Most of my classes thus far have been very objective-oriented, where you're given a series of facts and definitions and have to regurgitate them for exams. Critical thinking would obviously require more depth and understanding....

Buy an NCLEX review book and look at the questions. Some questions are completely factual, either you know the information or you don't. Others require you to apply the information you know to a specific situation and choose the best answer. I like the Lippincott Review Series and the Prentice Hall Reviews and Rationales books. They are subject specific and are very helpful when studying for nursing school exams.

Reasons people drop/flunk out of nursing school:

1. Personal issues (illness, have baby, husband loses job, etc)

2. Work too many hours

3. Discover they don't like nursing

4. Can't keep up with the massive volume of work

5. Can't figure out how to answer nursing test questions

6. Can't perform the clinical skills

7. Poor attendence

8. Financial problems

9. Unable to deal with constant stress and anxiety

10. Personality conflicts with instructors

Good luck!

First term: 1 drop out -- due to family health issues...has re-entered program

Second term (current term): 2 drop outs due to personal/family issues (I believe)

1 person failed due to poor clinical abilities (due to, I believe, pstd, and consequent inability to be assertive in the environment)...very sad, because personally a very lovely person.

1 person ALMOST dropped out because of family health issues--but managed to continue (she only had 2 more weeks to go).

Thank God for our instructors, who are really wonderful, and wonderfully supportive. Our first term instructor has some "drill instructor" behaviors--but sometimes I think that is helpful--especially if the class is young and immature. But even still, many people felt/feel she is very understanding and supportive--just kind of a gruff exterior.

NurseFirst

I am an older student,this will be my second career. I am still amazed at the lack of accountability some of my classmates have. Finals for us are next week and this week is crazy as people try to complete projects at the last minute. I would say about 40% of our class of 98 are on the bubble of passing pharmacology, need to pass the comprehensive final to stay in the program. And then they complain that items on the test were not covered in lecture. We are given a list of course objectives with the sylibus at the beginning of the semester, yet they believe they should only be responsible for the items spoon fed them in lecture. Frustrating to waste a quarter of a class with people complaining to the instructor. I am not sure how an accelerated class will work for nursing as there is soooo much to fill my time in a traditional nursing school. Just stay organized and on top of things.

Heck, I'm in an overly accellerated diploma program and am hopefully looking forward to acceptance at an accelerated BSN program.

It would be nice to have the time to actually study a complex topic, such as Peds or OB, in more than 3 weeks each. A whole semester would be wonderful!

The people I've known that were dropped from the program were mostly because of too low of grade and alot of their problem was they didn't expect things to go as fast as they did and it's hard to absorb the information in the small amount of time that you're given.

Alot of people have too many other things going on in their lives and become very stressed out about studying, family, finances, etc. During LPN school it's very hard to go to school and hold a job at the same time.