Question with no right answer

Trauma Columnist · Nov 2, 2006

Nowadays, a specially trained SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) should be the one caring for the patient if at all possible. However, I agree that in the context of this question neither of these answers is correct.

BSNtobe2009 · Nov 2, 2006

I hear you sister! I would have argued that question to the death!

What difference does it make what your classmates answered? Trust me, if the question had been worded correctly, and if you were the only student in the class to get it RIGHT your professor would have said, "Well, we had one student to get it right."

The question was written poorly and the professor should have pulled up her big girl panties and admitted she made a mistake and PRAISED you for your SHARP EYE!

llg, PhD, RN · Nov 2, 2006

I would give the instructor the opportunity to think it through and talk with her collegues before jumping to the assumption that you are going to get "shafted" on this question. As an instructor, I make it a policy to NEVER automatically change a question or a grade without first taking a deep breath and thinking it over -- even if I think the student is right.

Instructors get bombarded with such requests all the time and it's easy to "cave in" on the spur of the moment because the student made a good case for making the change. We have to be careful not to make a quick decision that we will regret later when we finally see the flaw in the student's argument. The smart move is usually to say "I'll consider it" and then step back and look at it when you have time to think it through thoroughly and ask for input/concensus from your colleagues as appropriate.

If she decides not to fix the situation, then you should address it professionally in the appropriate way by taking the issue to the next step up the ladder. It was a bad question. D is not a correct answer. The nurse should not undress on the cloth. But to get the situation resolved, you should use the proper procedures for appealing the grade -- and give the system the opportunity to correct the mistake.

llg

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 2, 2006

When something like this turns up on a test, particularly when the way the question is worded and the answer choices seem odd and don't match in language, I would get up, go to the instructor with the test in hand and ask about the question and if that is the way it was meant to be worded. Do it right at the time of the administration of the test and get it clarified before you turn the test in and it is graded.

jade-athyst · Nov 2, 2006

I went through this constantly in nursing school. The professors, who picked apart every grammer, speling or format error in our papers, no matter how small, didn't hold themselves to the same standards when creating tests. It always made me very angry that they expected perfection from us, but couldn't even create test questions that make sense. I argued over many of these questions, can't remember the specifics, but only "won" on a couple. I was told things like, "you're reading too much into the question" or, "even with the typo, there is clearly one answer that is better than the others." This would drive me crazy because a silly typo could stand betwen me and a better grade. A few times I did ehat the poster above mentioned, ad when they paid attention to me, it usually helped. Sometims it eve helped the other students becuse they would clarify the question during the test. They seemd to do this according to their mood at the time though, so that approach was hit or miss.

I don't know where you go to school, but my guess is you won't get very far with the nursing faculty. If this really bothers you, or it happens again, you might want to try someone out of the nursing program and explain to them , in simple concise terms, what the issue is. It doesn't take a nursing education degree to see te difference between "undressing", and "undressing the patient". I hope everything works out for you. Nursing school is hard, but being a new nurse, which is what I am, makes it look like a walk in the park!

luv2shopp85 · Nov 2, 2006

Well i didn't get the 2 points. I found out today.

luv2shopp85 · Nov 2, 2006

We got our grades today and I ended up with an 86, that includes the 2 bonus points we got for our group. I'm just wondering if its that big of a deal to go complain to the DON about this for hte 2 points. I'm getting fairly good grades and not failing. But if I would end up failing by 2 points that would be horrible and too late to do anything. I'm not really sure what I should do.

GratefulHeart · Nov 3, 2006

We got our grades today and I ended up with an 86, that includes the 2 bonus points we got for our group. I'm just wondering if its that big of a deal to go complain to the DON about this for hte 2 points. I'm getting fairly good grades and not failing. But if I would end up failing by 2 points that would be horrible and too late to do anything. I'm not really sure what I should do.

Honestly? --I wouldn't. My philosophy (and I realize that it may not be yours) is to pick and choose my battles very carefully while I'm in this marathon called nursing school. Since you admit that you're already getting fairly good grades and not failing, conserve your time and energy by staying focused on doing your best. It seems to me that it's a worthless distraction to pursue it any further because imagine what you're going to feel like if you do *go there,* and still don't get the outcome you're hoping for. Will it be worth it then, and how are you going to feel at that point?

Conserve it now, so you have more to spend where and when you really need it.

8o)

firstyearstudent · Nov 3, 2006

My philosophy is that all tests are flawed. As long as they are mostly fair (have only a few unfair or confusing questions), then I am satisfied. I wouldn't bring these bad test questions to the attention of the instructor unless they were excessive.

DaFreak71 · Nov 3, 2006

Unless this test grade is going to fail you, I wouldn't take it to the Dean. I do understand your frustration though. Sometimes I feel like I get mixed messages related to testing. One day we had a pop quiz that was a true/false quiz; one question asked "Venture is a type of mask". I said true. I got it wrong because it is a venturi mask, not venture. I thought that was pretty petty considering that a few tests later I was told to not read too much into the questions, LOL. Plus our tests routinely contain typos, so since I don't nitpick about spelling, I figured they meant venturi. Oh well.

Pick your battles wisely. I wish you the best of luck!

moongirl · Nov 3, 2006

When something like this turns up on a test, particularly when the way the question is worded and the answer choices seem odd and don't match in language, I would get up, go to the instructor with the test in hand and ask about the question and if that is the way it was meant to be worded. Do it right at the time of the administration of the test and get it clarified before you turn the test in and it is graded.

wow- that would be awesome. We are not allowed to get up during a test and talk to proctors...