The Economic Impact of Nursing Student Course Repetition

Pre-licensure nursing programs are academically challenging, and some students fail and must repeat courses. The social and emotional cost of course repetition has been well described, but there is less known about the financial impact. This study focused on the economics of nursing student course repetition, including financial costs and/or benefits to the individual student and to the institution. This study was a retrospective, qualitative multi-case study. Data was collected at each of four nursing schools during the summer of 2022. Data was analyzed using inductive codes and deductive codes derived from the theoretical frameworks. The economic impact of repeating on the student and on the institution is described and insights shared from within case and cross case comparisons.