I am posting to this forum to tell a looong story and would appreciate any feedback if there are ANY other nursing schools who do what happened to me. In my school there is great anxiety and tension because we have a skills performance at the end of the semester that turns the course in to a PASS/FAIL, regardless of your grades or clinical performance. The way it works is that after a lecture in lab, we are shown a skill. We then self teach and practice and we have to obtain 2 peer reviews. Next, we go to get the skill checked off by a lab instructor. Next, we have an appointment with one of the nursing instructors and they then check us off. At this point, this makes 4 check offs. We spend the next 8 or so weeks in clinical (med-surg) where we perform these skills countless times on patients. Each week we are evaluated for our clinical performance and you can receive either a U (unsatisfactory), NI (Needs Improvement) or S (Satisfactory). There is no grading scale where points are given, then added up to calculate a grade. I was checked off by both instructors, passed clinical and was carrying a B average by the last week of school.
Here is where the problem exists and I hope I don't confuse anyone. The faculty schedules a 'final' skills evaluation which is 2 hours long and the student goes in with very little knowledge of what to expect to do during the 2 hours. We have to use equipment that has been used countless times (i.e-syringes, catheters) and they are usually packaged poorly etc. making it hard to remain sterile. It starts with 'verbal report' on 3 patients (the dummies in the lab) and then you start your 'shift'. Throughout the entire 2 hours the instructor changes orders, gives verbal lab values and interrupts the student. It is nerve wracking because we get so NERVOUS because it is a PASS/FAIL. We get 2 trys and my second attempt was the week before my final. The particular instructor I had has only taught for 3 months and she put me through the ringer. She was my clinical instructor and watched me perform countless PAC Accesses and that is what she failed me for. She handed me a 2 lumen and I have never used one, or seen one!, and due to my nerves I screwed it up. And so, that's it!! I failed my entire semester ONE WEEK BEFORE THE FINAL. With a B average and after passing clinicals and doing this skill more than any other skill this semester on real people. As I said above, there is no point system. You make a mistake, you fail. When this occurs, the student is not allowed to complete final tests and I received an E on my transcript, financial aid is threatening to lower my aid and I've lost a grant I was receiving which was the only way I could afford to pay for my kids afterschool care. I now have a 2.6 GPA and I started out with a 3.97 I'm soooo devastated and it was a tough X-mas emotionally trying to stay 'happy' for 4 kids and a husband. I'm appealing but this school has been doing this for years. I hired a lawyer (LIKE I CAN AFFORD THAT!) to take me through the appeals because this school seems quite corrupt. What they expect me to do is repeat the entire semester for 1 minute of my life because the instructor gave me a piece of equipment I had never used. It will set me back another year and I was supposed to graduate in May.
Their tradition of this 'final' skills eval makes no sense to me and I was wondering if anyone out there has ever heard of such a thing. It would be appreciated because I passed these skills TWICE before (In Aug, and Sept) performed them on people and failed the week before the end of the semester. Any advice would help. Thanks.
