Let me preface this by saying I am a 47 year old male who was enrolled at a local Community college in the Paramedic to RN program. I have been a Paramedic since 1986 and I have worked in a large urban fire department for the past 27 years. This was going to be my second career. Our school has a policy of a 75% average on the total number of exams for that module. If you do not meet this requirement you have a chance to retake the module to achieve a passing score and complete the program. This took place in August of 2013.
Here's my dilemma,
I successfully passed every module for our program the first time except for the Maternal/Newborn module. I retook the module with the same instructor and failed again. My exam average was 71.25% but my overall average was an 88%. My clinicals were stellar. Since I did not meet the school's requirement I was dropped from the program and told I could not reapply for 5 years. I was devastated and almost suffered a severe anxiety attack. I have never suffered one before because I work in a large urban fire department where I need to make life or death decisions in a matter of seconds in less then stellar conditions. I also sank into a severe depression and retreated into my bedroom avoiding my wife and children. I'll be 52 in 5 years and I have no intention of starting the program then. Both times I requested a tutor but they said there were none available. Also the instructor was standoffish and arrogant and seem to look down on all students because she had a PhD and made sure we addressed her as "Doctor". Talking with other students in my program the entire program was in a state of chaos basically. A lot of the older instructors retired and there was no real leadership per se. The only person who I could count on for the correct information was the Department's secretary who has been there for years.
I wrote e-mails to all the people who I thought could help my situation in some way. I received no responses. I typed a letter and sent it to the same list of people. I finally received a reply from the Director of Nursing who basically summed it up by saying tough luck. Not our problem.
No one could believe that this was their response. My sister and wife are both RN's and spoke with co-workers who said that was just wrong. What I am asking for from you all is what do you think I should do? Over the holidays my sister ran into one of my clinical instructors and asked how was I doing. She told her what happened and she was astonished to. She said I performed above average in clinicals and the instructor that I had has had numerous complaints against her. I am willing to retake the module I failed but I am too far into this to start the entire program over. It makes me angry that there were students in the program who screwed up bad in clinicals and were almost expelled but those same students are now RN's. Can anyone tell me which direction I should turn or who to contact to assist me in my dilemma?
