Over the past 20 years, the number of nursing students who have graduated has generally decreased, shows a survey from the newspaper Vårdfokus.

In 2020, 74 percent of students managed to complete the education.

At Linköping University, a couple of years ago the number of study places was reduced from 163 to 138 in order to raise the merit level among the students and thus increase the percentage who would pass the study.

Helén Marklund, program manager at the nursing program in Linköping and Norrköping, sees several reasons why fewer and fewer pass the training.

- One could be that students have an idea that it is a very practical profession and that not much theory is required, she tells SVT Nyheter.

Students' academic conditions are getting worse

According to Marklund, knowledge is mainly lacking in mathematics and the natural science subjects.

- In practice, this can mean that you have difficulties with drug calculation during an examination.

Program managers for nursing education that Vårdfokus spoke to also testify to linguistic deficiencies, both among those with Swedish as their mother tongue and those born abroad.

- Reading comprehension, simply absorbing a text, is too poor.

Spelling and aiming errors are common reasons why the answers are incorrect and can be misinterpreted, says one of the interviewees to the newspaper.

The program managers in Vårdfokus review agree that the students' ability to cope with academic studies has become worse in the last ten years.

The student: The education must have quality

There is a great concern among students about not passing the education, says nursing student Marlene Juhl.

- You want to complete your education, but at the same time you feel that you cannot do it, she tells SVT Nyheter.

But is the nursing program too difficult?

- I wouldn't say that.

There needs to be a certain quality in the training courses.

I think it's about how the university designs exams and the education.

In order to train more police officers, the talent requirements for the country's police training courses have been lowered.

But according to Helén Marklund, lowering the educational requirements for nursing education is not relevant.

- We have the national requirements against which we examine.

We cannot lower them.

Watch Helén Marklund explain what the crisis in nursing education is due to in the video above.