A degree, debts, and no job

As many American nursing graduates are discovering, you don’t always get what you pay for. According to The American Journal of Nursing(1), some who have graduated from for-profit institutions find themselves refused state licensing accreditation and unable to find a job. They may also have accrued significant debts : the average career-college costs $ 14 000 per year. Many default on loan repayments and may choose to abandon their courses.

Although the school may be accredited, the specific course may not be : if so, state-licensing boards will refuse to accept students for NCLEX.

In the current economic climate, a nursing degree can sound like a good way of accessing a secure job with good prospects. Well-advertised career colleges, owned by rich parent companies and eligible for federal funding, attract because they offer a large on-line component to their courses. This flexibility appeals to busy or single parents, or those already working.

The downside is that they may have poor quality faculty ; transferring credits to schools in other states may be impossible and clinical placements are often limited.

With many public schools forced to cut the number of places they offer, potential nurses are being lured by glossy ads and website promises. The AJN says « many recent settlements, lawsuits and allegations are tied to misleading information and top-down, company-enforced pressure tactics by recruiters to enrol students at any cost. »