Failed two classes in 3rd semester. Seeking advice.

[Lapzs]

Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster here looking for help. So here's my story.

I am in a 2 year BSN program. I am nearly done with my 3rd semester, only to fail two classes (peds and OB lectures) this semester with less than 75% on my exam average. My school's policy is that if you fail two classes, such as getting less than a 75% average on exams, you are dismissed. They do have a readmission policy. You can wait a year (which I don't want to do) or appeal. My question is, do I have a chance at being readmitted?

This is the first time I've ever had to deal with academic failure. What stinks is that they both happened in the same semester, so I didn't even retake anything yet, which is all I want to be able to do. I am writing a petition to appeal this to retake the classes along with their clinicals (which I passed).

Basically, my dad's brother's liver cancer worsened to the point where I had to travel and take on a care giver role along with other relatives. It was both a cultural and familial responsibility. I am only 20 years old, so being young and inexperienced this was something I was not prepared for or used to. As you can imagine, this new role came with time constraints and mental and physical fatigue. As a result, I did not perform as well academically as I could have and should have and got

I am including what I said above in my letter, though not verbatim (above is a summary). Do you guys think I have a shot at being able to retake those classes? I really don't want to fail out of the program because of a family illness and involvement. I was really naive to think I can handle being both an unfamiliar caregiver role and a full-time BSN student. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN]

I'm so sorry that this situation has happened to you. I think you do have a good chance to have your appeal approved as long as you can provide some proof of the situation maybe from your uncles professional care providers? Good luck!

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

You might want to spell out what your improved study/life plan is for them. Hopefully your options aren't either/or, as in you can wait a year and re-enter or you can petition to retake the courses you failed. Ideally, you want to leave both options open for them to consider.

Here's a question, what would be the consequence of you retaking those courses? Would you have to place the rest of your coursework on hold as well, in effect repeating this past semester? There also may not be room in the coming semester for you. That's a possibility. Almost happened to me, actually.

At this point, many things are essentially set in stone. What you need to do is convince them that this was an aberration, that you're worth salvaging for purposes of rolling you into the next semester and repeating those courses, or that you're worth allowing you to re-enter the program next year and repeating the courses you missed at that time. Remember, regardless of the outside circumstances, you alone are responsible for what happened because you weren't able to prioritize and find a way to make things work effectively.

I don't know what's going to happen in your case, but I hope things have calmed down significantly and that you're now able to manage all that's going on effectively and that you'll be able to succeed in your program. Good luck!

[Lapzs]

I agree that it is my fault entirely for taking on this role without being fully prepared or aware of the effects that it could (and did) have on my studies. I did include a statement saying this in my letter.

And I am petitioning to just be able to retake those classes in the next available semester, hopefully this fall or spring. One year is just too long to wait.

And unfortunately, I can't provide immediate proof of documentation of my uncle's illness. I need to submit this petition right away as it is the end of the semester and he lives in the neighboring state (traveling to help care for him was also part of my role). All I have is one letter of support from a professor that I had and two "character references" to vouch for me. Do you think these will help? Will they even consider this? A friend of mine failed the second time this semester due to medical condition and they rejected his petition.

This is really stressing me out.

[Lapzs]

PS. The two character references: one is from another faculty member who I had for two previous classes (assessment and community clinical) and the other is from one of my clinical instructors this semester.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

I would hope that your character reference letters will be taken into account. I also hope that you can find some way to get something that explains (not excuses) the necessity of your role in providing care fairly quickly. Do the best you can with what you have, or can get quickly. They're also probably going to be assured that whatever caused the problem in the first place will not occur again.

Obviously, I'm not in their head, I don't have all the details, nor do I have all the rules by which your program makes these decisions. All I can say is that I hope you're able to continue on sooner rather than later. If you're required to wait a year, you might consider taking other coursework to improve your knowledge base and/or prepare you for further studies down the road, such as getting ready for a Master's program, or concentrating on some other aspect of patient or community care. Whatever you do, try your best to stay current as a student in your school, if not in the program, as this may preserve catalog rights (for graduation) and things like that.

I wish you the best!

[Lapzs]

Other than signed sworn statements from relatives, no other documentation is available immediately. If they ask for it, I can get it probably faxed or emailed to me in a couple days' time.

The care I provided mainly revolved around driving him to chemo, cooking food, feeding him, administering his pain meds, the like. Other relatives cared for him as well, and the usually called me to come over weekends. Unfortunately, this had a detrimental effect on my studies. Hopefully this all works out.

Thank you so much for your help!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Oh Gosh, what a difficult situation for you to have to deal with.

Unfortunately, schools have to enforce all of their guidelines all the time. If they make even one exception for anyone (no matter how well it is justified) they can be successfully sued for discrimination if they do not make the same allowance for everyone else. So you can see why schools are so very cautious about 'bending the rules' - it opens them up to lawsuits. The only exception would be if they have a formal policy that outlines exactly what types of exclusions are allowed.

So - I wish you luck in your efforts, but just don't want you to take it personally if you are not successful. You are very lucky to have such a close and loving family.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

I have been in your position many years ago and my appeal was rejected. I moved onto another healthcare career and now 18 yrs later I am starting over in nursing (old program was ASN and now they only have BSN). I was young and naive about the process back then. These are the things that they are looking for:

1. Did you discuss your situation with your instructors during the semester so that they knew the reason why you were struggling? If they knew of your family situation then the appeal committee would ask them about it.

2. What is your GPA. If you have a high GPA (3.25-4.0) they are more likely to let you back in, 2.5 GPA not likely

3. Explain the whole situation and your plan for success in your letter

4. Include any letters support from instructors and clinical instructors only (no family or friends, they have no bearing on your academic ability ). The more support from teaching staff, the better.

5. Get copies of your clinical evaluations. Highlight the good points in your letter.

6. If you need to appear in front of the appeals board (I did) then be confident and be able to defend your grades in other nursing classes, clinical performance, and your plan for excelling in the remainder of classes.

[CordaeP]

I don't know where you are located, but here in TN if you make a D or below in two nursing courses you can not apply for any nursing program ever. If you do apply for the nursing program at a private college, you still have to have a letter of good standing from the previous nursing school. So if you have failed the program they will not give you a letter. So at least you are able to appeal. Good luck.

[Lapzs]

1. I did not discuss the problems with my instructors. I kept it all to myself until the very end, which now I see is a mistake. They could have helped me from the start.

2. My cumulative GPA is decent (3.30; 3.6 before nursing school). However, my GPA in the nursing program in the last two semesters is under 3.00 but more than 2.5 (did not calculate it, estimating the average).

3. I have explained the situation in my letter and my plan for success, but I did not go into detail. Nursing faculty members and others have said to keep it short, sweet, and to the point. I basically explained my family situation, that I talked to my family and we agreed that being in this role impaired my ability to perform well and they alleviated much of my responsibility to help me succeed in future semesters, and that I developed a personal plan of improvement that focuses on organizing and using time more efficiently and prioritizing my studies.

4. I have 2 letters of support and 1 character reference. The two letters are from a former lecture instructor I had and a current clinical instructor. The reference is from a former clinical instructor I had.

5. I didn't think about this. I'll see if I can make a copy, but these are typically long and I don't think I had any extraordinary remarks on mine, just satisfactory ones. I already have three attachments included. Will this 4th one be too much?

6. Oh, I definitely plan to do just that if they request my appearance.

Thanks for the advice!

[Lapzs]

CordaeP

Actually, I think that's a rather fair position. Ds are definitely NOT the best grades to get. It's like my school's policy, but with Ds (my school requires a 75% average or greater on exams, including the exit HESI for each class, to pass. Anything less than that is considered a failure. Two failures constitute dismissal.

But it would be nice to still have the appeal option, though.