Dismissed from nursing school...appeal denied

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I was in my second level of clinicals. Our school's dismissal policy is that you can't fail anymore than two nursing courses. However, there is an appeal procedure for students that have been dismissed.

I am a good student. I got excellent grades in first level, not to mention all of my prereqs.

One of the classes I failed, I felt that the grades were not weighted fairly. Our grades were quizzes and skills checkoffs (IV's, NG tubes, etc). Well, we had about 7 quizzes and 4 checkoffs. I made A's on all of the checkoffs plus 5 of the quizzes. I failed two of the quizzes, which caused me to fail the entire class since all together everything was only 200 points.

Long story short, I had a lot of health problems last semester. I spent many days in the emergency room not only for myself, but also my husband, who had emergency surgery. I have endometriosis which is very painful when it flares up, plus I was also diagnosed with hypothyroidism.

The difference in energy and concentration ability when I was not on thyroid medication vs. now that I am is like night and day.

So, I appealed my dismissal, with a nice long "feel sorry for me" letter, and I found out today that it was denied. I know that I slacked off last semester, it would have been hard not to in my situation, however I am a good student and feel that I deserve a second chance.

So basically, what I am wondering, is my nursing education over for good? Will any other schools take me since I have been dismissed from my program? Has anyone here ever been in my shoes?

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geri, Ortho, Telemetry, Psych.

I was kicked out of nursing school after I got a D in nutrition. I felt like the biggest loser in the world. I was in a daze of disbelief the entire ride home and I lived an hour away from the community college I attended. I was so embarassed. Telling my family was hard, I felt like such a failure. But I went back the next year and tried harder (not that I wasn't already trying hard), and made it. Now, eleven years later, no one would ever know it happened if I didn't tell them. It sucks now, but it will be ok. Don't give up. I'm glad I didn't. :smokin:

As unfair as this seems, it is the policy in most programs. You just cannot afford to miss any clinicals. Lab & clinical experience are just not the same.

it may be the policy but it is not recommended from a legal standpoint. This is per an article in the May 2003 Journal of Nursing Education that studied grade appeals. "Faculty should not decrease a student's grade if some other measure will achieve the objective for which the teacher is striving. For example, if a student is absent from a clinical experience, his or her grade should not be reduced if the absence is legitimate and can be made up."

Specializes in Telemetry.
it may be the policy but it is not recommended from a legal standpoint. This is per an article in the May 2003 Journal of Nursing Education that studied grade appeals. "Faculty should not decrease a student's grade if some other measure will achieve the objective for which the teacher is striving. For example, if a student is absent from a clinical experience, his or her grade should not be reduced if the absence is legitimate and can be made up."

I think clinical hours are something that are state mandated. You have to complete a certain amount of hours in a clinical setting.

At my school you can miss clinical but you have to make up the day. And good luck doing that because each seat in all the clinical sections is already filled, so there is no room to go on another day. If you can't make up the day, you fail clinical, thus failing the semester. You'd have to reapply and reenter the next year.

Specializes in ED, Cardiac Medicine, Retail Health.

Policies are not set in stone. I was deployed by the military and missed the first 5 weeks of the last semester this past July and was allowed to continue and graduate. I made up the clinicals and did not miss an exam. But there was another classmate dismissed for missing a couple of clinicals.

Policies are not set in stone. I was deployed by the military and missed the first 5 weeks of the last semester this past July and was allowed to continue and graduate. I made up the clinicals and did not miss an exam. But there was another classmate dismissed for missing a couple of clinicals.

I graduated many years ago & we had several people dismissed/terminated from school due to failing 2 classes. You were only allowed to miss one clinical & of course had to make it up.

For military, they were allowed to miss due to deployment & of course resume their classes once they arrived back home. Written in the handbook that the school had to save their slot. Glad to see you were able to graduate.

Please do not get discouraged!!! I started a nursing program (hospital diploma based) in 2001..after getting pre req's done for 2 years......and had 3 semesters done out of 5.....1st year the summer of advanced med surg (3rd semester) plus pharmacology......I was failed on the very day we had our final evaluations from our clinical instructor......because this one instructor just hated me from the get go......and no I am not "whining" because I have to pass the buck onto someone else because I did bad...I had phenomenal reviews from every single instructor until this one I had, she made my clinicals a living nightmare every week.....I literally had panic attacks & anxiety attacks because of her bs........and had chest pains and migraines...all from stress from her nonsense......only I never had the guts to speak up...even the instructors I had prior to her all told me they wish they could do something but they have to work with her every day..so that tells me they knew already.........she apparently would pick out one student each semester that she had in clinicals..(I am not the 1st) and do this to them........ let's put it this way... at pre or post conference 1/2 of the students in my group would get up to leave the room because of how ridiculous this instructor would be to me....very degrading, condescending and trying to talk to me in a very demeaning manner....like saying my name after every few things she would explain.............to the point one student actually said to her why she always leaves is because of how she treats me...and the instructor would say ''excuse me...xxxx" , she would even stare me down in the cafeteria if we were in there at the same time......and others saw it too...so it wasn't me. But she would be overly nice to me if another instructor was in the room at the same time so they couldn't witness her crap......... also, one of my daughters nurses (who is a school nurse) had a kid at her school whose mother had her 2 years ago at the same nursing school & who went through the exact same thing........(and she never went back to school again because of it)... I ended up just reapplying to a whole other school....got into a community college which I just graduated with my ADN from with fantastic reviews from every single instructor I had there.... .......so it took me 7 years because of that one horrid person...........my former instructors all told me do not give up my dreams because of one bad apple.............and I didn't! I am even going onto getting my BSN.....heck the running joke is to get my MSN & go get a job teaching at the very school that woman is still teaching at.........just to see her expression! I may even go to visit my old instructors from there just to rub her ugly face in it anyway...........and you know why? Because I was not giving up my dream for anyone......no way :nono: because she would of won......and h e double hockey sticks was going to freeze over before I let anyone take away my dreams...........so sorry my story was sooooooo long but do not give up!!! Even if it means starting from the beginning all over again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh ya....p.s. a nurse who I still am friends with today from that clinical group there that graduated from there when I was supposed to ...actually told her in the final semester 3 years ago, that I was coming back to school there just to mess with her..and told me her face was worth a million bucks just seeing her expression alone...she said her jaw must of hit the floor so hard it broke..lol...she actually called me right after she told her to tell me about it....rotflmao......oh that was great!!!!!! LOL!

I find it appalling and very disappointing that schools that profess are this rigid, and may I say "uncaring" ? My, my, I wonder what would Jean Watson say?

To "care", you must first be minimally competent.

1 Votes

I know how you feel - 6 months ago or so, I also was dismissed and my appeal was denied....

I applied and was accepted at another school nearby and am waiting to hear if I got into their nursing program to...start over (minus of course my general education credits...) - I had 7 classes to go (basically research and technical ones - no clinical's left).

Just wanted you to know that you are not alone, and my suggestion is if you really love nursing then just apply and start over, its probably the easiest way to go (and I use easy loosely - because it really hurts everyday - I too was dismissed on unfair circumstances - family and personal health problems...).

Good Luck, I know how hard this is and what you must be feeling like!

Best Wishes!!:up:

Please do not get discouraged!!! I started a nursing program (hospital diploma based) in 2001..after getting pre req's done for 2 years......and had 3 semesters done out of 5.....1st year the summer of advanced med surg (3rd semester) plus pharmacology......I was failed on the very day we had our final evaluations from our clinical instructor......because this one instructor just hated me from the get go......and no I am not "whining" because I have to pass the buck onto someone else because I did bad...I had phenomenal reviews from every single instructor until this one I had, she made my clinicals a living nightmare every week.....I literally had panic attacks & anxiety attacks because of her bs........and had chest pains and migraines...all from stress from her nonsense......only I never had the guts to speak up...even the instructors I had prior to her all told me they wish they could do something but they have to work with her every day..so that tells me they knew already.........she apparently would pick out one student each semester that she had in clinicals..(I am not the 1st) and do this to them........ let's put it this way... at pre or post conference 1/2 of the students in my group would get up to leave the room because of how ridiculous this instructor would be to me....very degrading, condescending and trying to talk to me in a very demeaning manner....like saying my name after every few things she would explain.............to the point one student actually said to her why she always leaves is because of how she treats me...and the instructor would say ''excuse me...xxxx" , she would even stare me down in the cafeteria if we were in there at the same time......and others saw it too...so it wasn't me. But she would be overly nice to me if another instructor was in the room at the same time so they couldn't witness her crap......... also, one of my daughters nurses (who is a school nurse) had a kid at her school whose mother had her 2 years ago at the same nursing school & who went through the exact same thing........(and she never went back to school again because of it)... I ended up just reapplying to a whole other school....got into a community college which I just graduated with my ADN from with fantastic reviews from every single instructor I had there.... .......so it took me 7 years because of that one horrid person...........my former instructors all told me do not give up my dreams because of one bad apple.............and I didn't! I am even going onto getting my BSN.....heck the running joke is to get my MSN & go get a job teaching at the very school that woman is still teaching at.........just to see her expression! I may even go to visit my old instructors from there just to rub her ugly face in it anyway...........and you know why? Because I was not giving up my dream for anyone......no way :nono: because she would of won......and h e double hockey sticks was going to freeze over before I let anyone take away my dreams...........so sorry my story was sooooooo long but do not give up!!! Even if it means starting from the beginning all over again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh ya....p.s. a nurse who I still am friends with today from that clinical group there that graduated from there when I was supposed to ...actually told her in the final semester 3 years ago, that I was coming back to school there just to mess with her..and told me her face was worth a million bucks just seeing her expression alone...she said her jaw must of hit the floor so hard it broke..lol...she actually called me right after she told her to tell me about it....rotflmao......oh that was great!!!!!! LOL!

Wow, I can't believe how similar your situation is to mine!! This is unbeliveable!:chuckle I have just been dismissed from an associate degree nursing program one week ago. I have an appeal in process, which I feel will most likely be denied. But the exact same thing happened to me in clinical. For some reason, this instructor tarteted me from the beginning. I will never know why. I also developed panic attacks, and sometimes chest pain and migraines from clinicals! I am 7 months away from graduation.:banghead:

But I am ready to reapply elsewhere, even if I have to start over. It has always been my dream to be an RN. When this instructor "dismissed" me, she smiled smugly and said "I'm sorry" (which, of course, she wasn't), and I told her all this means is that I will finish my nursing courses elsewhere. I moved from a beach house into a mobile home and sold my car to afford nursing school, I'm also a single mom, so there's nothing for you to feel sorry about. This is not going to prevent me from reaching my dream. And I walked out.

Congratulations on finishing yourself!!!:yeah:

By the way, to the original poster, this instructor also was know to have done this to other students, too. You are not alone!

I was in my second level of clinicals. Our school's dismissal policy is that you can't fail anymore than two nursing courses. However, there is an appeal procedure for students that have been dismissed.

I am a good student. I got excellent grades in first level, not to mention all of my prereqs.

One of the classes I failed, I felt that the grades were not weighted fairly. Our grades were quizzes and skills checkoffs (IV's, NG tubes, etc). Well, we had about 7 quizzes and 4 checkoffs. I made A's on all of the checkoffs plus 5 of the quizzes. I failed two of the quizzes, which caused me to fail the entire class since all together everything was only 200 points.

Long story short, I had a lot of health problems last semester. I spent many days in the emergency room not only for myself, but also my husband, who had emergency surgery. I have endometriosis which is very painful when it flares up, plus I was also diagnosed with hypothyroidism.

The difference in energy and concentration ability when I was not on thyroid medication vs. now that I am is like night and day.

So, I appealed my dismissal, with a nice long "feel sorry for me" letter, and I found out today that it was denied. I know that I slacked off last semester, it would have been hard not to in my situation, however I am a good student and feel that I deserve a second chance.

So basically, what I am wondering, is my nursing education over for good? Will any other schools take me since I have been dismissed from my program? Has anyone here ever been in my shoes?

This is so weird, I also have an appeal in process, which I feel is probably going to be denied in the next day or so. I was targeted at clinicals by a nasty instructor who is known for this. This program is known for just arbitrarily kicking students out, although they deny it to our faces. Just start over somewhere else!!! If you really love nursing, which I do, don't settle for anything less. Don't let them win! Finish your education elsewhere and I know you will go on to be a fine nurse!:D

Know what guys? I feel you pains, but, be encouraged ,dont give up, as long as there is life there is stil hope. Remember, it is not always easy to acheive the things that are good in life. sometimes when you try to do good evil presents itself. but pray and ask god what to do next and where to go from there. he will open doors and reserve a seat for you in some other nursing school. believe in yourself and trust god he will come through for you.

:redbeathe:redbeathe:redbeathe:redbeathe

it doesn't make sense that you can get As on everything except 2 quizzes and then fail....hmmm. anyway, it sounds like there is more to the story. you probably should have made an appeal at the time all of your troubles started and possibly take a leave, not wait until you failed and then appeal.

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