Tinto’s (1993) interactional model of student departure was initially developed for students in traditional academic degrees, at residential colleges in the US. This paper takes up Tinto as a fruitful starting point for a critical review of the aspects of the model which are more and less suitable for professional degrees: integration and commitment. Since nursing degrees are quite different from traditional academic degrees, particularly when it comes to the structure of the programme, this calls for a rethink of how the concepts can be used. The paper suggests that a Tinto-type model could be adjusted to offer a valuable tool with which to inform institutional work on retention and completion in nursing programmes, and potentially in other short professional degrees. While we identified limitations in how integration functions in a nursing programme, the existing model could be adapted to account for professional commitment, which in turn may counteract the fragmented integration nursing students experience. As nursing students’ initial commitment is much stronger (compared to other student groups), and this is linked to professional identity, students seem less interested in developing a student identity. Institutions should therefore consider alternative integration activities, activities which build on and contribute to the professional commitment students come into the institution with. Additionally, the integration activities also need to consider teaching at several sites, as nursing students switch between their institution and various practice placements, and therefore have a more interrupted study path.

Tinto (1993) 的学生离校互动模型最初是为美国住宿学院传统学位的学生开发的。本文将 Tinto 作为一个富有成效的起点，对模型中或多或少适合专业学位的方面进行批判性审查：整合和承诺。由于护理学位与传统学术学位有很大不同，特别是在课程结构方面，因此需要重新思考如何使用这些概念。该论文建议，可以对廷托型模型进行调整，以提供一个有价值的工具，为护理项目以及其他短期专业学位的保留和完成方面的机构工作提供信息。虽然我们发现整合在护理课程中发挥作用的局限性，但现有的模型可以进行调整以考虑专业承诺，这反过来可能会抵消分散的整合护理学生的体验。由于护生的最初承诺要强烈得多（与其他学生群体相比），并且这与职业身份相关，因此学生似乎对发展学生身份不太感兴趣。因此，院校应该考虑替代性的融合活动，这些活动建立在学生进入院校的专业承诺之上并有助于他们的专业承诺。此外，整合活动还需要考虑在多个地点进行教学，因为护理学生在其机构和各种实习地点之间切换，因此学习路径更加中断。