Despite Challenges: Nursing Student Persistence

Background: Seeking to improve nursing student retention in their small university, faculty conducted a literature review on attrition in nursing education and discovered it to be a significant global problem with nearly one third of qualified students discontinuing. Improved nursing student persistence could stem the growing worldwide nursing shortage. The existing research on retention indicates multifaceted challenges and impacts but offers scant solutions or insight into student perspectives. Method: The nursing faculty piloted a bridge course for the freshman cohort to develop intrinsic strengths for student persistence and begin soliciting student feedback using a mixed-methods phenomenological approach. Results: Faculty describe the bridge course framework and activities and present initial student responses. Conclusion: The pilot bridge course serves as one step toward identifying challenges and interventions from students' perspectives to support persistence as a means of meeting nursing shortage demands.