Clinical Grades

Ari RN, BSN, RN · Jul 28, 2004

In my school clinicals were graded either Pass or Fail. You had to show your competence in certain skills and we can't forget those dreadful Care Plans. :)

suzy253, RN · Jul 28, 2004

Yea..you'll be checked off on all the procedures...in time. Certain procedures you can only do in your freshman year, etc. etc. I think each school may have different ways of grading. And as Ari mentioned, the Care Plans are a big part of that grade as well. We also had to do other extensive reports on our patients (12 pages long) r/t assessments, findings, why we did it and had to cite a reference for reach assessment. Time consuming but it was a great learning process.

Altra, BSN, RN · Jul 28, 2004

Yea..you'll be checked off on all the procedures...in time. Certain procedures you can only do in your freshman year, etc. etc. I think each school may have different ways of grading. And as Ari mentioned, the Care Plans are a big part of that grade as well. We also had to do other extensive reports on our patients (12 pages long) r/t assessments, findings, why we did it and had to cite a reference for reach assessment. Time consuming but it was a great learning process.

Ditto what Suzy said ... yes, you will eventually need to be checked off on all the procedures - they're in the curriculum for a reason, and they're not optional. :chuckle

Clinical at my school is pass/fail, and includes not only your performance during clinical days but also written assignments (referenced care plans, complete and/or focused health assessments, weekly pt. assignments - varies by semester) and a few oral presentations (such as a 15-min. presentation doing teaching on a health topic to a group of LTC residents).

Even though it's pass/fail, we get evaluated weekly, so that feedback is much more insightful and helpful than just a pass/fail at the end of the semester.

LauraLou · Jul 29, 2004

Our clinical grade is a combination of checkoffs and careplans. For 1st semester, we had checkoffs on vital signs, physical assessment, oral medications, dry dressing changes, wet-to-dry dressing changes, foley/straight catheters and nasogastric feedings. We also handed in a careplan every week on our patient. It included physical assessment, nursing diagnosis, pathophysiology, medications and nurses notes. In addition to the weekly reports, we had one major careplan due at the end of the semester that was much more detailed, more like a term paper. We got a letter grade for clinical, just like lecture. The scariest part of clinical was we only have 3 tries to pass each checkoff. If you don't pass the 3rd time, you are dropped from the program.

Good luck!

truern · Jul 29, 2004

Ours is pass/fail.

The objectives to be met were more along the lines of keeping a safe environment for the patient and observing universal precautions, also vital signs and correct meds administration.

Check offs on procedures depended on what your patients needed or what was available on the floor.

NurseMeg · Jul 29, 2004

our clinicals are graded pass/fail. generally, the first 4 weeks consist of skills labs, and we have to learn the skills (ie: iv's, injections, sterile technique) and then test out on them. if you do not pass the test out, then you fail the class and have to retake it next semester (if they allow you to!). once you are in your rotation, there's generally certain criteria that must be met in order for you to pass. we also have tons and tons of busy work like care plans and papers to write.....

Jen2 · Jul 29, 2004

Pass or Fail. If you do poorly on the careplan you fail. Also, we get notes every week from our instructor on what we need to improve on or what we did well etc. If we get a certain # of "U's" which is unsatisfactory we fail. We can get a U for so many things from profesionalism (that actually includes wearing too much makeup or having dirty shoes/uniform) to medication administration.

helpinghands, BSN, RN · Jul 29, 2004

My clinical is also pass/fail, but there are several components/areas that are "graded"

4 = very competent

3 = competent

2 = almost competent

1 = uncompetent (usually unsafe)

If you receive a 2 or 1 in any area you fail the clinical rotation. Most instructors communicate with the students if the are in jeopardy of getting a 2 or less way before the end of the semester. This way they can work on the skills in lab and pull their score up.

suzy253, RN · Jul 29, 2004

We learn our skills in our nursing arts lab and the following day we do a 'return demo' to the instructor. If they feel you need more practice, you can go as many times as you'd like to the nursing arts lab instructor to practice your skills. 4 times during each semester we have a NAL practical exam where you don't know what skill you'll be asked to perform..you pull a paper out of a hat--literally and have to perform it. We also have 3 written NAL exams each semester.

Before we can do a procedure on our own, we have to do it 3 times in the presence of our clinical instructor. Once you're checked off on the skill, you can now do it on your own without your instructor present.

Our clinical instructors monitor our progress as part of our clinical grade and if they note any problems, you again have the opportunity to practice more with the nursing arts lab instructor. The faculty are very open and approachable and only want for you to succeed. I also think it's great that you can keep going back to NAL to work on your skills--even during the summer when no classes are in session.

confused101 · Jul 29, 2004

We had return demos that were graded. They were a certain amount of points that went towards our lecture grade. We had projects that we did during clincal that went towards the grade too. Clinical paperwork every week needed to be turned in and we were graded S/U on certain portions of it and overall performance of clinicals.