Understanding pre-entry baccalaureate nursing students' academic failure: Applying Kübler-Ross's stages of grief

Elsevier

Available online 8 November 2022

Teaching and Learning in NursingAbstract

Prelicensure nursing students' academic failure has attracted growing interest because of its economic implications, the projected nursing shortage, students' performance on curricular benchmark exams, and NCLEX-RN pass rates. However, students' academic failure also has personal implications. They can experience grief and loss following academic failure. Kubler-Ross's Five Stages of Grief provide a lens for nurse educators to identify students' experience with grief and loss related to academic failure and supportive strategies that promote success with program completion. This article reflects on nursing students' experiences with grief and loss associated with academic failure. Kubler-Ross's Five Stages of Grief can offer nurse educators insight into the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral experiences of nursing students who experience academic failure.

Section snippetsLoss and Grief: Responding to Failure

The effects of loss and unmet expectations are universal human experiences; however, the causes and expressions of grief and loss can change with time and are unique and individualized (Oates & Maani-Fogelman, 2022). Loss may be interpreted by students who fail and struggle to succeed academically as consequential in their pursuit of something greatly valued (Oates & Maani-Fogelman, 2022). Prelicensure nursing students may be aware of academic failure as a loss or be unable to perceive failure

Academic Failure and Kübler-Ross's Stages of Grief Stages of Grief

This section of the paper integrates Kübler-Ross et al. (1972) grief model with student responses to academic failure witnessed by the author as an academic success coach. It next presents interventions supported by the nursing literature and literature on grief and loss.

Kübler-Ross et al. (1972) theory describes death and dying in five stages. These consist of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The stages are frequently applied to the nursing care of terminally ill

Kübler-Ross: The Denial Stage

The first stage in Kübler-Ross et al. (1972) is denial. The denial stage is characteristic of the expression: Is it true? Did this really happen to me? Similarly, students experiencing grief in the initial shock stage might echo patients' responses such as, no, not me; it cannot be true. How could I have failed this exam? The students might deny that exam failure occurred and be shocked and numb about the exam failure (Kübler-Ross et al., 1972). Denial might be a temporary defense mechanism,

Implications for Practice in Nursing Education: Educators' Intervention for Kübler-Ross's Stages of Grief

There are practical lessons to be learned from nursing students' grief and loss experiences with academic failure; therefore, nurse educators must develop appropriate strategies to assist students experiencing academic failure cope with failure (Frank, 2020). Psychological and functional support strategies should be developed to promote nursing students' academic success and persistence (Shelton, 2003). Psychological support includes providing a caring atmosphere facilitated in a mentoring

Declaration of Competing Interest

I am submitting a reflective manuscript entitled “Understanding pre-entry baccalaureate nursing students’ academic failure: Applying Kübler-Ross's stages of grief” for publication in Nursing Outlook for possible evaluation. I would like to state that: I am the author of this manuscript. I have read and approved the final version submitted. The contents of this manuscript are not previously copyrighted or published. The contents of this manuscript are not currently under consideration for

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© 2022 Organization for Associate Degree Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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