Am I a failure?

Nursing Students General Students

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In my current situation, I am a nursing student who failed "common concepts" last semester. I am currently taking "common concepts" but I am currently failing. My class is only pass/fail based on test grades only. I got 78, 66, and 54 respectively for each exam. I just got a 54 on my exam. I currently feeling angry, frustrated, suicidal and depressed.

I feel like I wasted time and money here. I thought I could learn to be a good nurse but this is how my class works. We take a 50 question exam over the material. We get graded at the end. If you attend testing remediation on what you got wrong, then you review it but you cannot write anything like subject or the missed question. I do not understand how we can learn if we cannot write what we missed. My professor's response was that they are trying to teach you critical thinking and they are tired of making new questions. Is this what nurses do for learning? They reuse the same questions. There is no bonus or extra credit. We do not even get to see pass/fail statistics of our class or concurrent class.

My second excuse is that my class is 3 hours for 2 days. In other words, I am in a flex program where the class is 8 weeks. Sometimes we go over the time limit and stay in class for an extra 30 minutes. A red flag signals to me that this class was not meant to be 8 weeks. It should be 16 weeks. I also cannot stand hearing lecture for more than 1.5 hours. I cannot see how one student can pay attention for more than that.

My third excuse is when I asked how some other students study for the exam. They pay someone who was a former teacher and basically goes over a "blue print" of the final exam. That is how they are passing and I am not. I did not want to bring it up because I did not want my friends to fail. It ends up being a ethical issue to me. Would you rather cheat and succeed or fail with honor?

My last issue is having the same exam as the other teachers. We have 6 professors. 2 in the morning, afternoon and evening. They all teach differently but we all get the same test. How does that work and evaluate on our performance? I remember one class got 4 bonus points while the other 2 classes did not for exam 2.

Yes, I am venting my frustrations. All this bad politics and grades can change a person's attitude of life. I have a chance to pass but I need an 82 on the final. My passion for nursing is down on the floor. I spent my weekend studying for exam 3 only to see a 54 as a result. My final exam is in one week. I apparently do not have a thought process of a nurse.

My question now is am I a failure as a student and a human being? Should I take the final exam for a chance to pass or is that wasting hope on the hopeless? Where do failures go after this? Am I going to find out the hard way after this?

This is interesting. I did not expect this many responses. Where to start?

As far as my studying goes, I am more of an active learner so I like to rewrite my notes. It helps me remember what I have learned. In nursing school, I do not have the time since it is only 8 weeks. So my first method was to read the power points from my professor. That did not work. I tried reading the textbook and think of questions that are important. I would type them up in a way that would answer 4 questions. That takes a lot of time with little to no payback. That is what I am currently doing now.

I did ask my colleagues for help or form a study group. They offered me a "blue print" of the exam. You could call it cheating or you could call it a resource to use. It is very subjective in opinion because most students use it to make up for the teacher's lack of teaching. Instead of studying for 200 pages, they only studied 50 pages. I would rather figure it out than let someone else do the work. Tutoring session was also the same way. We did a review of the material and then she gave us a "blue print" of the final exam.

After thinking it over and listening to what all the responses are, I will take the failure. I figure I am not a nurse after all. I just do not have the mind set or the patience for it. It is a major set back for me. I did my best on the test and I got a 54.

PS - I was actually surprise to hear that many locations just reuse the same test questions over and over again.

Please do not base your decision based of what you feel right now. Based of how you came off on AN, you seem anxed and stressed.

How about this... go study your behind off. Try your best. Take the exam. If you pass... seriously take time to consider if nursing is what you want.

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

ps. I can relate to how down you feel. I am sure about that. Putting myself in your shoes makes me realise that any of us can be dropped from night to day.

If you believe in God... have faith. have faith.

I couldn't believe it either!

Same here. We're in healthcare, and everyone glosses over "I'm suicidal."??? That statement could very well be purely attention seeking, but that is not for us to decide and gloss over. OP, you HAVE TO GET HELP

Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Posting online that one is suicidal is a call for help. Anyone can call a suicide warm line or hotline. As student nurses, add this to your resources (US):

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Nothing is worth killing yourself over.

Posting online that one is suicidal is a call for help. Anyone can call a suicide warm line or hotline. As student nurses, add this to your resources (US):

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Nothing is worth killing yourself over.

Do you feel that we student nurses (nursing majors) are at an increased risk for depression and even a risk of suicide? ... opposed to lets say ... a communications major?

I'm just a student and I noticed their suicide statement but I noticed everyone before not mentioning anything so I decided not to.... regret it. Should have gone with my instinct.

I also wonder if most nursing schools have therapists especially for their students ... mine DID... Apparently she "quit"... guess she couldn't handle us. LOL.

but seriously, I do wonder if rates of depression vary with areas of study.

I heard medical students suffer in silence and so do medical doctors because it would be "shameful" to admit you are stressed and depressed and need help.

Nursing and Medical schools should and need to hire some form of counseling and emotional support...

I do believe we suffer a... "special" stress.

I'm just a student. Just my opinion.

Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

My statement about having the information as a resource was not meant that nursing students in general are higher risk for suicide. But in general that nurses, as a highly trusted profession, are more likely to encounter someone who admits to having difficulty or suicidal tendency than say a communication major.

Therefore having the the national suicidal hotline in your resource repertoire would be beneficial.

But, because of the situations a healthcare provider may be exposed to (such as trauma, child abuse, death, pediatric death, etc) healthcare providers are higher risk for stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD and by extension suicidal ideation.

Most nursing schools have specialized counseling resources to help students deal with unique stressors. My school did and she has been with the school for years. She was a wonderful resource when one if my classmates died after complications due to a sudden illness

Specializes in Forensic Psych.
I can't believe a of the responses so far has not addressed that you are suicidal. Maybe you should speak to a counselor

As for your grades, study differently than what you've been doing. Can you do a study group?

We're a bunch of nursing students. Skimming/scamming through large amounts of text is a way of life.

Have you gone for the teachers for help about how to study for their exams? They don't respond well to 'but it's not fair' but they do respond well to 'how can I do better?' Also, lots of good people don't make it through nursing school. It doesn't make you a failure. It just means you're not a nurse. There are many routes to happiness, and they don't all pass through the NCLEX.

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Firstly: please get help or talk to someone about your feelings. No part of nursing school is worth suicide.

Second: failing at a task or course of study does not mean YOU are a failure. It simply means that this time, you failed at a specific task/thing/course of study. Learn and move on, either with this area of your life, or choose a new direction.

Third: blueprints for the exams are not cheating, they are trying to show what type of questions are there, and how to apply critical thinking to them. I personally give my students a blueprint, or example if you prefer the wording, for their math test. Not the actual questions, but very similar ones. I teach people how to answer those questions. If you can do those, you'll pass my exam.

Fourth: Writing good test questions is not as easy as it might seem. What seems perfectly clear to the person writing it, because they know what they are looking for, can come across very differently to the reader. It takes several times of people taking tests to weed out questions that end up being misleading or misunderstood. Even the NCLEX has trial run questions in it, that aren't part of your score but are being tested out for future use. In order to have well written exams, many of us use the some of the ones provided by the publisher of the textbook, and yet there can still be problems. We have entire books about writing good questions.

Also, to maintain continuity of what each class learns, we use same or similar tests, otherwise there is no consistency.

I appreciate all the constructive input from everyone. This was more beneficial than I hoped for. It gives me an outlook I could not have thought of.

My anger and suicidal tendencies have passed. I accepted that nursing is not my "cup of tea". My next move is changing my major or career direction. I will make what I can with my setback and see where it takes me.

Dwelling on this topic any longer offers no benefit in my opinion. I cannot change the past now. I will try to change the present and make a new beginning for me.

I appreciate all the constructive input from everyone. This was more beneficial than I hoped for. It gives me an outlook I could not have thought of.

My anger and suicidal tendencies have passed. I accepted that nursing is not my "cup of tea". My next move is changing my major or career direction. I will make what I can with my setback and see where it takes me.

Dwelling on this topic any longer offers no benefit in my opinion. I cannot change the past now. I will try to change the present and make a new beginning for me.

I'm glad you are no longer suicidal and as tough as nursing school is, it should not make anyone feel that way.

Nursing is not for everyone and if it makes one miserable to the point it was making you, then that is a huge sign that, indeed, it is not your "cup of tea".

This is not a failure, this is a realization that this is not for you.

This is absolutely okay.

I sense hope in your post and your willingness to pull what you have learned from a negative experience and grow and move forward.

You will not become a nurse-- so what!

Play to your strengths and pursue what makes you feel good about yourself and will provide you with a fine career.

I wish you well and good luck in your future endeavors.

You sure do like to make excuses don't you? I believe that this is the kind of attitude that easily becomes weeded out of any nursing program. Perhaps this isn't the profession for you?

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