Dropouts from nursing education: path analysis of a national sample

Path analysis was used to test a theoretical model of college nursing student dropouts. Multiple regression was used to assess the relative importance of the predictor variables. Students' self-reported reasons for dropping out were studied by contingency and correlational analyses to determine the relationship between these reasons and individual difference variables. Factor analysis was used to develop scales to measure the variables of locus of control, self-esteem, social integration, and institutional commitment. The sample of students was drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Included in the sample were students entering two- and four-year nursing programs full-time in the fall of 1972. These two groups of students were found to be significantly different in measures of cognitive ability and in aspirations for further education. Approximately 27 percent of the two-year and 41 percent of the four-year students withdrew from their nursing programs during this study. Reasons for withdrawal most frequently cited by both groups related to losing interest in nursing and becoming interested in other fields of study. Educational aspirations had the strongest direct effect on persistence in nursing for two-year students; for four-year students, academic ability was the most powerful predictor of persistence.