Attrition and retention in the nursing major: understanding persistence in beginning nursing students.

To meet the challenges of the ongoing nursing shortage, it is imperative to increase the retention of students enrolled in schools of nursing. This article reports on findings from a larger research study on faculty-directed strategies to address the attrition of beginning students during the early, nonclinical phase of nursing education. Four themes that influenced students' persistence in the nursing major were uncovered during interviews: Keeping Up, Not Giving Up, Doing It, and Connecting to the use of resources. Diekelmann's concernful practices as enacted by faculty are linked to student narratives.