Why do [some] nursing students fail?

Nursing Students General Students

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I plan to attend an LPN course this spring. I look at success rates of this course as well as success rates for other LPN/RN classes. I would like to know what causes students to drop out. What do I need to avoid/need to focus on, etc? Thank you for all of your upcoming suggestions.

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I plan to attend an LPN course this spring. I look at success rates of this course as well as success rates for other LPN/RN classes. I would like to know what causes students to drop out. What do I need to avoid/need to focus on, etc? Thank you for all of your upcoming suggestions.

What causes anyone to fail at anything? Some people lack dedication, some lack raw ability. Others have distracting personal lives or find themselves overextended with jobs and families. Some become ill. There are an endless number of reasons why people don't succeed.

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I have two kids - pretty independent teens; I work part-time as an HHA (booooorrrrriiinnnngggg!). I have two bachelors degree in counseling. I am very limited in biology, althouh I have been studying intensely. So, I beleive I have the time, I think I need the confidence. Thanks. Ken.

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Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

Moved to Student Forum.

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I put my topic in general topics because I am asking for advice on people who are no longer in school but witnessed people drop out.

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Irresponsibility, immaturity, not studying, bad time management, burnout, over-studying, newly realized learning disabilities...

Also, when you look at success rates, that counts withdrawals too. Some are because of failing... But then people transfer to other programs, some realize that nursing isn't the glamorous job they were imagining, some realize they don't really want to be a nurse.

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The people I have seen fail or are currently failing/on the verge of failing do so from what looks like over studying and basic knowledge deficit. They are dedicated and study so much and most get the SATA questions on the test right, but bomb on the general knowledge. It's sad, because I know they are doing what looks like all they could. I honestly did the worst on one of my tests when I studied the drugs and stuff too much, I couldn't remember what drug was on which page when I tried to look in my brain. Most people don't understudy in nursing school and fail that I have seen. Life circumstances can definitely also play a role, but that hasn't been the biggest reason that *I* have seen. Good luck!

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Thanks, Tony!!! That post gives me a bit more confidence.

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Thank you, rnhopeful!!! I am getting a better idea of things.

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The reasons I have seen personally are poor study habits (so failed exams), too much time spent of social media (in class, no less....so I would put that down as immaturity, lack of dedication, and poor time management), and life-events interfering with school. Those were the reasons we lost a bunch of people. Now we're further into the class, I would say it's more about life events and not grasping concepts and/or how to answer NCLESX style questions. At this stage, everyone seems pretty dedicated.

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Practice NCLEX question after NCLEX question after NCLEX question. Use a book like this to study for every exam: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0323358519/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile

Pick out the content that is relative to what you are studying.

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I am currently in nursing school (ADN) and entered with a 3.88 gpa & learning always came easy to me. I must say, THIS IS THE HARDEST THING I'VE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE. I am 50 years old, work full time nights at a hospital in labor & delivery as a scrub tech & gonto school full-time days & have 1 day free to study per week & I'm making an A in Pharmacology & a B in my other two classes. We have had 2 fail out before the semester was over. One of them was because she was late to class every day, late to almost EVERY exam which cost her 10 points each time and liked to brag about her "friends " who would come over all weekend and then drag herself into class on Monday morning. The other student had major anxiety problems and couldn't focus. She had been hospitalized twice at a mental institute & just couldn't handle the stress.

Remember this: school requires maturity, dedication, time meanagemt & sacrifice. You have to learn how to say "no"!to the invites to go have a girls day the weekend before an exam, you have to turn off the TV & watch video assignments when you'd rather be binge watching your favorite Netflix show. It's abiut time management, reaching out to your peers and making good decisions when you'd rather throw caution to the wind. You can do this, you just have to believe you can!

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