Increasing Nursing Student Success With Early Individual Remediation

Abstract

With the implementation of five remediation strategies immediately after the first failed exam in a pharmacology course, this quality improvement study demonstrated an increase in retention of at-risk associate degree nursing students. Unit exam scores and course failure rates were measured before and after implementation. Twelve of 14 students who completed the remediation demonstrated a statistically significant increase in scores from the first failed exam to the last exam taken. The mean increase was 17.3 percentage points (p < .0001, 95 percent confidence interval [13.3, 20.9]). Cohen's d, which equaled 0.604, indicated a significant increase in course pass rates.KEY WORDS Associate Degree Nursing Students -Remediation -Student Retention -Testing R etention rates of baccalaureate and associate degree nursing students are routinely analyzed by nursing deans, directors, and other stakeholders, but little to no progress has been made to improve retention in prelicensure nursing programs. Nursing student retention has been recorded as low as 50 percent (Merkley, 2016). Within the nursing program at a small, midwestern liberal arts college, overall program retention rates reached as low as 55 percent with varied cohorts over the last several years, leading to an examination of strategies to support student success. Traditionally, the pharmacology course has had the highest failure rate of all the courses taught within the nursing curriculum. Program data review from cohorts dating from May 2012 to May 2019 indicated the failure rate for this course has been as high as 32 percent, with an average failure rate of 11.92 percent. The average cohort size for this time period was 28.