Withdrew from nursing school. Any alternative majors in case nursing doesn't work out for me?

[Julia Hart]

Hey, everyone. 

I withdrew from nursing courses because I went through a traumatic experience in one of my clinical locations. When I reached out about it, I was told to either do the clinicals or I wasn't a student anymore. So I chose the latter.

(I was also having issues with clinical reasoning questions, but that was less prevalent than the former and the professor showed me resources that could help me. Although by the time the resources came out, there were only 4 exams a semester and it was now exam 3/4 and I had a 78 in one class and 79 in another, so...)

I'm not going to give up on my dream to become a nurse, I'm going to a different university, I'll try as many times as it takes, etc. I'm just trying to be cautious and making a backup plan for if nursing doesn't work out for me.

Also, my school was kind of awful. Acceptance was in the single digits, and graduation rate was a piddly 39%. Schools I'm being accepted to have an acceptance rate of about 70-80% with a graduation rate of about 80-90%. 

Anyone else fail nursing school and pursue a different major? If so, what was it?

 

[rougewitch]

I don't have any advice for you, and I'm the last person qualified to help as I'm still a student doing prerequisites, but I admire your dedication to keep going. Nursing comes with a lot of grueling moments as you know and it can turn a lot of people away from the profession.

You're asking advice from students who failed out of nursing school. Their view is going to be different from yours since you withdrew. Their alternative majors highly vary, though maybe those students declared other health related majors for the overlapping requirements.

Your second to last paragraph is very intriguing to me, and frankly, the reason I replied. Not only was your school highly competitive, it also has a high attrition rate. You're right, 39% is awful. Do you know what your school's NCLEX pass rates are? Some schools have high attrition rates because they are weeding students out to keep NCLEX pass rates high. Don't get me wrong, NCLEX pass rates are highly important because that's what keeps schools' accreditation, but it's not a great program if it has the combination of mediocre NCLEX pass rates and high attrition rate. 

Same thing for the schools you mention that has high acceptance rates and retention rates. Make sure it's accredited and has a good NCLEX pass rate. Are you applying to expensive private schools? Because I've never seen any credible nursing schools with that high of an acceptance rate, it sounds too good to be true.

Best of luck!

[Arr-tistRN]

Lab tech, chemistry tech, radiology tech, pharmacy tech, audiology or prosthetics fitter, pt or ot assistants are some that come to mind.