Failed out of BSN Program, What Now?

Editorial Team / Admin · Dec 15, 2014

Its just extremely frustrating that he has nearly two years invested, and thousands of dollars in loans, and the school is basically saying sorry you missed this by standardized test by 3 questions, your out!

I understand that you and your son must be very frustrated, but missing the cutoff for acceptable passing grades is missing the cutoff, whether it is by 1 question or 100. If they were to move the passing line for him, where would it stop? Then we get into the issue of nursing students who can't meet the minimum competency wanting to join the workforce, where they are going to have people's lives in their hands. Is that a trend anyone wants to start? I sure don't.

Whether your son wins his appeal or not, the decision on what to do is his and his alone. Sure, you can give advice and input, but ultimately he needs to decide. He can try other nursing schools, who may or may not accept his prerequisites, but most likely will not accept any of his nursing courses. The reason for this is that while the BON sets what must be taught, each school can teach it how they want and individualize classes.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Dec 15, 2014

You're not going to like what I have to say, but you will hear it from others, so I'm just going to be the first.

If your son is old enough to be in college, he's old enough to find his out for himself and not have mommy or daddy be doing it for him. If he wants to go on in nursing school, that's his decision, but at this point if he were my kid, I'd say, "Fine, but you take out the loans and repay them, because we're done."

As to the rest of your questions, if he failed a required course once and then couldn't pass it on the second try, then it's possible that he is one of those borderline students who isn't really academically qualified to graduate from a nursing program. Every year we hear from students who fail their last semester; those of us who have taught students know exactly what they are like-- they have passed previous semesters, but not well; they cannot seem to make a minimum grade for whatever reason. These are not, generally speaking, the people you want being nurses and the vast majority of them will not pass the licensure examination anyway. If they have earning disabilities, these will often make it difficult or impossible to be safe practitioners.

If they didn't pay attention to their faculty after the first failure and buckle down, get help at the student learning center, go for extra tutoring, meet with their faculty weekly or more often, party less, work less, do whatever it would have taken to pass for whatever reason, well, that's on them. Sometimes being responsible for their own loans focuses the minds.

My daughter is a physics professor. She had a haiku on her door when she was teaching as part of her PhD program:

Office hours.

No one comes in, though I am here now.

Perhaps they'll all fail.

Most nursing programs are sui generis-- they don't transfer credits the way, say, a math major or a chem major does. It is very likely that if he wants to transfer to another program he will have to start over from the beginning.

CNA/phlebotomy/EMT etc. are not rungs on the nursing ladder that he has already climbed. It used to be, decades ago, that if you finished X% of a BSN program you could sit the LPN boards; I know of no states where this is still done.

At this point, IF he asks you, "What do we do now?" your answer should be, "WE don't do anything. YOU get a job and start paying rent and making payments on your student loans, and be grateful you aren't subject to being drafted into the Army."

guest769224 · Dec 15, 2014

OP, while I'm not disputing the above comments, here is a link to a similar thread circulating that offers what you may find to be "more pleasing" responses.

Failed out of last 7.5 week of class before graduation https://allnurses.com/showthread.php?t=964166

liberated847 · Dec 15, 2014

At this point, IF he asks you, "What do we do now?" your answer should be, "WE don't do anything. YOU get a job and start paying rent and making payments on your student loans, and be grateful you aren't subject to being drafted into the Army."
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Way to kick someone when they are down. OP, the simple answer is, tell your son to try again, go for LPN then bridge to RN. Pay no attention to the elitist comments here.

WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN · Dec 15, 2014

I would definitely advise your son (not you) to call around to all schools in the area and asks them specifically if they will, or have ever, accepted a student in his position.

What he really needs to do before that, however, is figure out what caused him to fail the same class 2 times. No student should aspire to the minimum, so I strongly believe this is a semesters-long issue he has had. It should not have come up as a surprise to him that he failed. There definitely was writing on the wall, so to speak.

Did he seek tutoring help when he first started getting in trouble? How does he expect this not to happen a third time if he goes into a new program? How is he going to change his study habits? These are all questions other nursing programs are going to ask him. He needs to be prepared that they will be blunt in their questions. They only want students that they can guarantee will pass the nclex, and he has already failed twice. The deck is stacked against him, so to speak, in this regard.

For his appeal, they will be asking similar questions. They want to know that he recognizes what cause this, how he intends to change this, and what his plan is to implement those changes.

That being said, he is not really eligible for any certification. As far as LPN goes, it is at the discretion of the state board of nursing and the school itself. I know few states still allow this, if any.

JB131 · Dec 16, 2014

Rose Queen, GRN Tea - Wow!! Nice bedside manner, and I bet you don't have kids!! Its a good thing that human compassion wasn't a requirement when you were in school, back in the day, or you two would have been in trouble. I'll take my son's willingness to help the average person over your academia insulting attitudes any day!

..."༄❀Proud member of the Crusty Old Bat Society❀༄"... nuf said.

Thanks, to those who had helpful comments.

Editorial Team / Admin · Dec 16, 2014

Rose Queen, GRN Tea - Wow!! Nice bedside manner, and I bet you don't have kids!! Its a good thing that human compassion wasn't a requirement when you were in school, back in the day, or you two would have been in trouble. I'll take my son's willingness to help the average person over your academia insulting attitudes any day!
..."༄❀Proud member of the Crusty Old Bat Society❀༄"... nuf said.

Thanks, to those who had helpful comments.

First, my bedside manner has nothing to do with this post. Different views are permitted; that is the purpose of a discussion board.

Secondly, the crusty old bat saying was a way those of us who tell it like it is turned an insult into a positive. Guess you had to be here when that happened.

liberated847 · Dec 16, 2014

Funny to see these "crusty old bats" give their nasty hearted opinions and ill advice while at the same time crying foul when other give theirs and they don't agree.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Dec 16, 2014

Rose Queen, GRN Tea - Wow!! Nice bedside manner, and I bet you don't have kids!! Its a good thing that human compassion wasn't a requirement when you were in school, back in the day, or you two would have been in trouble. I'll take my son's willingness to help the average person over your academia insulting attitudes any day!
..."༄❀Proud member of the Crusty Old Bat Society❀༄"... nuf said.

Thanks, to those who had helpful comments.

OP, that's the beauty if the Internet, look around and see that these posters are educators and parents themselves-that's what happens when you engage enough on these boards and enough threads where posters share enough about themselves that you get to "know" them-and they did preface that you may not "like" it; they actually gave you a bare bones POV about life after nursing school as well as some of the thought patterns of what you son is going to have to face as someone who has a nursing school failure-I have been there; many of us have been there, failing nursing school and have dusted ourselves off and go on to be nurses, so be prepare for this POV. It's not an "elitist" attitude :no: ; it's a viewpoint of educators that have a duty to produce competent students and to protect the public in ensuring that any nursing student going to take the boards to become licensed, to be competent individuals.

I understand your frustration about him not passing and having to pay student loans back, but the reality is he may have to try an alternative route to erase the failure, or wait 5 years before he can re enter a BSN program again; he will have to get that information himself, and he has to figure out what was his roadblock to his success in his class.

I left a ADN program not passing; I made the choice to not return and had to figure out what I needed in order to succeed. It took about 3 years to be comfortable enough to enter a practical nursing program where I found out I had test anxiety; they helped me develop skills to combat that, and I learned to develop those critical nursing thinking skills that help apply the theory to the clinical skills needed to be a competent nurse.

There is life after a nursing school failure; but I will tell you PN school is, IMHO, MORE rigorous than a BSN program-still rigorous-but to me it was nursing boot camp; squeezing loads of information into a little over a years time is more daunting to the two years of BSN education; I've done both, and it is not like ANY other subject as posters have stated; to be educated and competent with having lives in one's hands, one must be able to have some mental endurance in order to receive, process and apply the principles of the nursing model.

Best wishes to you and your son.

Raviepoo · Dec 16, 2014

The best thing he can do is ask around and see if he can find a school to work with him. If he wants to become an LPN there are schools (at least in PA where I live) that might be willing to work with him and give him credit for what he has already learned. If he really wants to be a nurse there are ways to do it.

I think some serious reflection on his part is in order. He needs to spend some time looking at his actions and his motives and figure out why he failed the same class twice. I went to nursing school in my late 40s, after earning a bachelors degree several decades earlier. My 20 year old self would not have been able to accomplish what my 40-something year old self did. I was too self-absorbed and flighty. I went to class when I felt like it, and got notes from other students when I couldn't be bothered to show up. I didn't study. I skated by. If I had tried to pull that in nursing school I would not have graduated.

One of the things that happens in nursing school is acculturation to the role of a nurse. It's not something to be taken for granted. Expectations for nurses are a little bit different than expectations for other careers. Nurses are expected to always, always show up for work when scheduled. Snow storm? Big whoop. If you're on the schedule, you find a way to get there. Nurses are expected to be honest, ethical and trustworthy. Not everyone has those qualities. Nurses have to learn to put up with whatever gets thrown at them without breaking or having fits. It isn't easy. Being a nurse is not just about being smart enough to pass tests, although that is an absolute requirement.

It's hard to transition to adulthood. There are so many things to think about, so many new responsibilities, so much change. Is your son ready to be a nurse, or does he want to do something else for a while and figure out who he is? I don't know the answer. I'm just suggesting that he ask the question.

Red Kryptonite · Dec 16, 2014

I have five kids, including one about to start college, and I agree with GrnTea. College students are adults and need to handle their own lives. Using me as a sounding board, asking for moral and emotional support? Great. Asking me to read over an essay and give feedback? I'll do that. Begging for homemade goodies and favorite recipes? I am all over it. Visiting on breaks to bask in short episodes of kid-like family life? Yay!

Expecting mommy to put in the effort to figure out what to do after they fail? Just call me Grumpy Cat, because no. Adults need to act like adults. The sooner they start, the faster they get good at it. There will be no unemployed 30 year olds playing World of Warcraft in their pajamas in my house.

The student who failed should be here asking for advice, not his mom. Park the helicopter and let him figure this out.