Why do nursing students leave bachelor program? Findings from a qualitative descriptive study

Abstract

Background Over the past few years, the phenomenon of “nursing student attrition” has been unevenly studied. Investigators often focused on independent predictors as age, family obligations, final grade of high school, demanding physical and mental workload and others. Specifically, just a few studies applied qualitative methods to better comprehend the very needs of first year students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree in nursing sciences (BSN), to sustain their learning process and define effective strategies to reduce student drop-out. Methods We conducted a qualitative descriptive study. Thirty-one nursing students at Verona University were interviewed using a semi-structured guide. Data analysis was performed according to a descriptive approach by Sandelowski & Barroso (2000). Results A total number of 31 students were interviewed. The most recurrent themes regarding the reasons behind BSN drop-out were: understanding that they were not suited to be nurses, perception of missing/lack of psychological, physical and practical resources needed to successfully cope with both nursing school and the nursing profession, inconsistencies between the image of the profession and the reality of the job, feelings of disappointment for the experiences of internship, perceived lack of support from the clinical teacher while going through difficult experiences. Conclusions We can consider a part of these drop-out decisions normal, even physiological when students come to realise that they are not suited for the nursing profession. However, it’s important to guide nursing students with adequate counselling in order to give them the essential tools to cope with the training and the future as health professionals.

Readiness of Student Nurses in Clinical Practice Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In line with this, Bakker et al ( 2018) stated that dropout is common for graduate students, leading to a shortage of Professional Nurses due to physical and mental overload, which greatly affects the student's health condition. Moreover, when students decide that they are not suitable for the nursing profession, dropout decisions are believed to be physiologically common among nursing students (Canzan et al, 2022). As shown in Table 4.4, the descriptive statistics on the level of readiness for Related Learning Experiences.…”

Who cares? Effects of gendered self‐perceptions on dropout intentions in communal degree programs

“…This is a global issue; a report from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2016) predicts a worldwide shortage of 18 million healthcare workers by 2030. At the same time, the number of students dropping out of academic programs in healthcare and early education has increased (Canzan et al, 2022; Hamshire, Jack, Forsyth, Langan, & Harris, 2019; Twigg & McCullough, 2014). Dropout rates in health and early education are also high in Norway, the context of the present research: Dropout rates are between 15 and 20% in nursing (Dolonen & Reppen, 2022) and approximately 30% in teacher education (data from 2012; Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2016).…”

Socialisation of children to nurse and nursing images: A Goffman‐inspired thematic analysis of children's picture books in a Swedish context

“…The images of nurses and nursing can affect potential applicant pools for the nursing profession and the retention of the workforce. The incongruity between nursing images and nurses' actual work during clinical placement is one of the main motivations for nursing students to drop out from the nursing programme (Canzan et al, 2022). Young people focus on stereotypical images of nurses as caring, kind individuals, who work in hospital environments and as assistants to physicians, although less intellectual and inferior to physicians (Glerean et al, 2017; Kay, 2015).…”