Students wishing to become nurses are three times more likely to drop out of school than ten years ago.
Three times more female students in nursing training to drop out in first year in 2021 than in 2011, according to a new study by the DREES.
A damaging development “since due to the tensions weighing on human resources in health but also the aging of the population, the recruitment needs for nursing positions should remain significant in the years to come”, analyze the authors of the research.
10% of female students dropped out
In 2021, 10% of female students dropped out of their studies in the first year of nursing training, compared to three times less in 2011 (3%). “The dropout rate at other levels is also high: 7% in second year and 4% in third year in 2021”, can also be read in the report. “The number of graduates each year has thus fallen by 7% between the peak of the years 2010 and 2021 (from 26,500 to 24,500)”, continues the text.
Moreover, while the dropout rate increased in all regions of France between the 2011 and 2018 promotions, it changed in contrasting ways depending on the geographical location. Indeed, this change was the most important for Pays de la Loire (+7.3 points) or Normandy (+5.4 points), and the least important for Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (+0.4 point) or Brittany (+0.6 point).
Another lesson from the survey: men more often abandon their nursing training during school than women. Thus, the dropout rate for men in the class of 2018 reached 19%, compared to 13% for women, and this figure has increased more significantly among men than among women since the class of 2011.
And the other health facilities?
“For most other health facilities, the dropout rate in the first year has also increased significantly compared to the early 2010s”, complete the authors of the study.
On the other hand, the number of students in the first year of nursing training has increased sharply to reach nearly 35,500 in 2021, after having remained generally stable in the 2010s (around 31,000).
