Fostering nursing students' retention: The evaluation of an enhanced student success program

Nursing school attrition is a serious issue worldwide. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the effectiveness of an enhanced Student Success Program (SSP) in retaining undergraduate students at risk of failing a nursing program. The traditional SSP was implemented for students of fall 2016 and was further enhanced by incorporating Student Academic Achievement Coordinator (SAAC) support in spring 2017. Data were obtained from 67 at-risk students' records from fall terms 2016 (n=33) and 2018 (n=34). The combined failure rates were decreased between fall 2016 (36.4%) and fall 2018 (8.8%), p<.05. The introduction of the SAAC support also led to an observable decrease in overall dismissals between fall 2016 (12.1%) and fall 2018 (2.9%). Overall, this project's findings suggest that the enhanced SSP may play a critical role in decreasing combined failure rates in nursing education. Further research is needed to evaluate the impact of SAAC support on nursing students' success and retention.(c) 2023 Organization for Associate Degree Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.