1 in 4 nursing students will drop out of their course, Nursing Standard 2020 has revealed. According to the industry magazine, the average attrition rate, though varying widely between universities, remains at a worrying 25%.
The figures are even more troubling when the uptake on nursing courses has been high. Recent data from the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) showed a record rise of over 23% in nursing student admissions in 2020. This is good news, however it only goes so far towards closing the gap when students leaving their course is higher.
There’s further cause for concern ahead too with changes proposed to current routes of entry to a nursing degree. A 2021 report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) reveals alterations to BTEC assessments and other vocational studies will likely limit options for potential nursing students to gain the qualifications they need to study at degree level.
Nurses are in demand now more than ever before. Despite the increased recognition of the value of the profession, essential support for nursing students is not being provided.
The COVID-19 crisis has been particularly hard on nursing students. They’ve faced challenges new not only to them but to their profession, creating increased anxiety around their roles. Students have either faced an overwhelming front-line role in a pandemic or seen the shift to remote learning. Both approaches cause universities to face up to the traditional ways they support their nursing students, and there’s a huge risk to progression if they fail to deliver.
To find out more about the problem, at Solutionpath we studied student engagement data from three UK Higher Education Nursing providers, each with varying numbers of enrolled students. We wanted to see if our StREAM student engagement platform could successfully identify the students ‘at-risk’ of withdrawal before they left their nursing studies.
We processed the data via StREAM to create an engagement profile. Using our tried and tested methodology, we assigned an engagement category to each student. By identifying those at both higher and lower progression risks, we could clearly see the levels of engagement for the students who went on to withdraw from their course.
Across all three universities assessed, StREAM identified over 90% of withdrawn students as part of an ‘at-risk’ category. Proving that engagement is an effective method of identifying risk in nursing courses.
Comparing students is key to understand overall engagement. The StREAM platform also revealed how withdrawn students were spending a greater number of days in the at-risk category than those students who went on to progress. From this, it’s clear low engagement is an early warning sign. It’s a crucial way to identify student nurses who may withdraw from their courses, showing you when it’s vital to step in and provide the necessary support students need to help them progress.
Reducing attrition rate in nursing courses is more crucial than ever. To find out more about how StREAM can help you, request a demo of the platform by emailing nursing@solutionpath.co.uk.
Learn more about how we gathered and measured the data we used in our Attrition in Nursing case study.
1 in 4 nursing students will drop out of their course, Nursing Standard 2020 has revealed. According to the industry magazine, the average attrition rate, though varying widely between universities, remains at a worrying 25%. The figures are even more troubling when the uptake on nursing courses has been high. Recent data from the […]
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