University discrimination - what do you do when you fail 4th year?

[shattered]

For all you busy people out there, I will provide a short version and long version to my story.

Short version:

I was a 4th year RN student taking the last course necessary for the degree and my instructor failed my written assignments. The school has a bit of a reputation for discriminating against male nursing students like myself.

What education/career choices are there for me that preferably utilizes a lot of my credits?

What can I do to prevent more students from being treated as unfairly as I was?

Is it feasible to attempt to sue the university?

/short version.

Long version:

I'll summarize this as much as possible.

I was doing my acute care focus for 4th year and was doing great. The focus was 2 courses - a theory class and the clinical. I passed the class and at my mid-term evaluation my clinical instructor marked me as meeting or surpassing all expectations. After this point I fell sick for a few weeks and was unable to successfully complete clinical, so I had to repeat it the following year.

The following year the program changed slightly by merging the two acute courses into one big one - this meant that although I already passed the theory class, I had to take it again.

Initially I was doing well in this course. Clinical was going well and I had no problem with the mid term exam in the theory class. The theory class had two case studies that needed to be done during clinical - just like last year - and I already passed it the first time (in fact I got 100% on case study 1 the previous year) so I was pretty confident when I did another one and handed it in. Afterward, I was pretty shocked to find that the instructor failed it. After getting A's and B's in every written assignment throughout university, the same calibre of work no longer merited a pass. This was an automatic fail for the course but she told me I could rewrite it. The rewrite was a huge additional burden to an already hectic 4th year workload but I did so, and was quite confident that the rewrite would pass. Once again, it failed. They claimed that the papers showed knowledge deficits - which is interesting considering that I had already passed the course. This meant that even if I passed everything else in the course, I would still fail. My only recourse was to appeal - which I did after the course was over.

I continued on with the theory course and the clinical and handed in case study #2 - which was probably the finest work I have ever submitted. It failed. So I rewrote it - that failed too. I showed these case studies to 3 other nurses, 2 of which were nursing instructors (whom I have never met) and they all agreed that they deserved a passing grade.

The issues at the university were weighing heavily on me during clinical. For the first time in my life I started seeing a counsellor. I fought through the stress and extra workload (the two case studies, plus they added other assignments for me to do) and during mid term evaluation, my clinical instructor marked me as satisfactory in every category. He marked my evaluation as satisfactory in every category for my final evaluation as well.

When I went in for my final evaluation there were supposed to be 3 other people there: my clinical instructor, my theory instructor, and my program instructor (the latter two of which have been collaborating to fail my assignments and give me negative feedback throughout the semester). This is so all 3 can provide input to decide if I pass or fail the course.

For whatever reason, my clinical instructor was not there. They claimed that they could not get a hold of him but proceeded to break school policy and evaluate me without his input anyway. The only input that was provided by my instructor was the written evaluation in which he marked me as being satisfactory in every category. Despite this, they said that there were some concerns about my clinical performance and so they failed me for clinical as well as the theory. They crossed off some of my instructor's 'satisfactory' checkmarks on my evaluation and checked the 'unsatisfactory' boxes instead. Evidently, from the comfort of their offices in the university they knew more about my clinical performance than the instructor who actually watched my performance on the floor for over 300 hours.

I mentioned all this and more when I submitted my appeal and they denied it anyway and I was failed from the nursing program.

So now I am here to ask two things:

1) Is there anything I can do to prevent something like this from happening to others? (One person told me that instructors are able to destroy students without concern since the university can drag lawsuits out for years until you give up). And is there a chance that I could be compensated for what they did?

2) What are some career choices that I can look into that utilize my credits? I passed all my 4th year classes save for that one. I have considered psychiatric nursing (mental illness is fascinating to me) but the idea of so much more schooling is daunting to me. Perhaps there are some technical fields that are in big demand. I'm wide open to suggestions.

[ArrowRN, BSN, RN]

This thread makes me sad that this kind of thing is happening. It's almost like how women were discriminated against if they wanted to be a physician.

OP if nursing is your dream don't let anybody stop you. Sometimes you just got pick the battles you want to fight and how you should fight them. If you think bringing this to court is the route you want to take then all the power to you. However if it was me I would transfer schools and when I graduate go back to that school that failed you with my cap gown and degree certificate and say "look at me now" lol but that's just me.

I wish you the best of luck in any route you decided to take and believe that you can become the nurse you want to be.

Keep your head up and keep it moving!

I agree with this...sometimes the best way to fight something is from the inside. Finish your degree somewhere else and become a professor in that school and you will be able to assist your men that way. Right now you got no paper trail, just "feelings" and a court won't go for that. They need solid evidence of the discrimination or whatever is happening. Look at what women in traditional men jobs went through, it took time...heck they(women) still fighting the gender war, but you gotta pick battles you can win.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

I love it when people say "that don't sound like discrimination to me" when they are the ones who are not in the situation. It's obvious something is going on here. Even in my University and all female professors are a bit odd with the male students. Especially when come times to clinical and the men are not "chatting away" with the patients and that is often viewed as not interacting, even incompetent. When I was sick for 1 day I was called in and told that they think nursing was just not for me.

They fail to accept men are different and we got a different approach to nursing. The change men are trying to make is not easy and the older generation especially loves pushing back at change.

...

Wow - just wow.

When students - who by definition have not yet even achieved entry into the profession - feel that they need to "change" nursing, it boggles my mind. Absolute hubris. And to state that "MEN" are the sole source of this (presumably positive) change effort is nonsense. And demonizing "older generation" nurses as an entity . . . words fail me.

Discrimination is extremely difficult to prove. For one thing, you would have to have access to information about the rest of the group population in order to show that equivalent performances were judged acceptable. You can't do this based upon just one point of reference. So it is inappropriate to even toss out such a serious charge as "discrimination".

IMO, PPs who have whole-heartedly jumped on this poorly constructed bandwagon have not demonstrated critical thinking.

[Tinkx RN]

IMO, PPs who have whole-heartedly jumped on this poorly constructed bandwagon have not demonstrated critical thinking.

Yup we sure did!

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

Yes Jory, he should be allowed to remediate. But it may not happen. Good students get dismissed because a professor has it in for them. You've seen it occur. I've seen it occur. We've all seen it occur. You got to play it smart by having a strategy and backup plan.

I agree, but instructors only get away with this when people scamper away and don't use the grievance system.

The OP doesn't know how many other male students MAY HAVE used it in the past.

I can tell you now, if I was an administrator and saw the same type of complaint coming across my desk semester after semester? You can chalk up a couple to sour grapes, but when you start seeing a pattern, then there needs to be an investigation.

[AOx1]

OP, you need to review not only the nursing school's appeal policy, but that of the college or university itself. It is often very specific about what constitutes grounds for an appeal, how to take your appeal higher (as you were already denied at the school level), and time limits during which you may appeal. Work the chain ofcommand as high as you can, but bring evidence. Caution: do not claim discrimination unless you can show proof. I would fight this on what you could prove (ex-altering your clinical evaluation). Will the clinical instructor vouch for you? Can you show a written policy that the evaluation was to be with all 3 instructors, yet it wasn't? Avoid anythingwithout evidence (ex-teacher is mean, the two are working together to flunk you out, etc). Try to show how policy was violated.

The decision to retain an attorney is yours alone, but I would exhaust my appeals at the University first. Does your university have an ombudsman?

[swansonplace]

OP, you need to review not only the nursing school's appeal policy, but that of the college or university itself. It is often very specific about what constitutes grounds for an appeal, how to take your appeal higher (as you were already denied at the school level), and time limits during which you may appeal. Work the chain ofcommand as high as you can, but bring evidence. Caution: do not claim discrimination unless you can show proof. I would fight this on what you could prove (ex-altering your clinical evaluation). Will the clinical instructor vouch for you? Can you show a written policy that the evaluation was to be with all 3 instructors, yet it wasn't? Avoid anythingwithout evidence (ex-teacher is mean, the two are working together to flunk you out, etc). Try to show how policy was violated.

The decision to retain an attorney is yours alone, but I would exhaust my appeals at the University first. Does your university have an ombudsman?

This is a great idea. Did they give you options to retake the class or recourse to complete the program?

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

This is a great idea. Did they give you options to retake the class or recourse to complete the program?

I would say that the point is whether or not he was given a fair shot at it...if he wasn't, then he has a reason to be concerned.

Many people are posting, "Just transfer"...folks, transferring is not that simple.

Most any college in the USA have a policy that you must complete X number of hours at their school before you will be awarded a degree from that institution. That prevents me from completing 3 1/2 years at Easy University and then transfer to Princeton in my last semester and then be granted a degree from Princeton....colleges won't let you do that. Extreme example, but it demonstrates a point.

That is not to mention all of the money, time and effort. School is expensive and schools do very little to keep power tripping instructors out of a job...why, I will never know.

[swansonplace]

The school system must not use an unfair convening body to determine if he is up to par or not.

I guess your smoking gun, and your paper trail are your grades received in clinicals that proved you were passing, and the paper work by another person that shows that the grade was changed.

Also, the class in question for the meeting was the lecture class, not the clinicals class, so to change a grade like that for a class not under scrutiny is odd.

Also, the convening body, was not fair since 50% of the vote was going to be a fail since only two professors where there one was the professor that had given you a failing grade. As a result, you would automatically fail since 50% of the vote was a fail.

[Gentleman_nurse, MSN]

At most colleges and universities professors have what is called 'academic freedom.' They have very large discretion on how they teach and grade. This is supposed to give them them ability to do scholarly work without fear of reprisals or coercion. Very difficult to appeal a grades on the grounds of fairness (ever notice your syllabus has the escape clause 'subject to change'). Easier to win a grade appeal on the grounds of improper department or university process.

[swansonplace]

At most colleges and universities professors have what is called 'academic freedom.' They have very large discretion on how they teach and grade. This is supposed to give them them ability to do scholarly work without fear of reprisals or coercion. Very difficult to appeal a grades on the grounds of fairness (ever notice your syllabus has the escape clause 'subject to change'). Easier to win a grade appeal on the grounds of improper department or university process.

Teachers do have the ability to give grades at their discretion. My question is if the process to check the student was invalid since one professor was missing. When that happened, their were two left, and one was the one that was failing him. That means that he was going to be failed just by the shear setup. That is 50% was an automatic fail, and the process was unfair.

Being failed for two classes is important, as with two class failings the student may be kicked out of the program with one at my school he has the ability to retake the class. This failing of two classes becomes suspect when the student was only represented by two professors which gave him a 50% chance of a fail, and the meeting was not for the one passing class.

The process failed to protect the students right to fair judgement by nonbiased persons. Even if he is not competent, he has the right to being fairly judged otherwise any student can be failed, and it not subject to concrete evidence.

So the education system as a whole does not have checks and balances on it to ensure that students rights are not being violated. I wonder if this is one of the reasons why we have been calling for so long for a better education system, but one has not come about for the last 30 years. It is an issue that is degrading our education system, and our society.

[ArrowRN, BSN, RN]

Wow - just wow.

When students - who by definition have not yet even achieved entry into the profession - feel that they need to "change" nursing, it boggles my mind. Absolute hubris. And to state that "MEN" are the sole source of this (presumably positive) change effort is nonsense. And demonizing "older generation" nurses as an entity . . . words fail me.

WOW WOW It's true..nurses do eat their young :) Anyways thanks lots for twisting my words but I did not say anything about MEN ARE THE SOLE SOURCE OF CHANGING THE FACE OF NURSING....and for you to infer that I am demonizing the whole older generation is ludacris.

The change I refer to was getting more men in nursing and if you think something is not going to change overall when that does happen then you just fooling yourself. FACT IS many Older female nurses thinks NURSING IS FOR FEMALES. Period! Not to mention elder patients both male and female also think that way. If you never heard that, then you probably been not around long either, buts it was told to my face one of my first clinicals. Its attitudes like that is trying to keep men away from the nursing field. That is what I was talking about and that is what needs to change.

Anyways, if some people started a career without having a vision that's them.I am not entering nursing to just say oh I did this and this and followed my orders and did a great job. There are many health disparities as far as men's health goes and that's one of the changes I intend to make. Getting more men in nursing is one of the keys to getting men's health back on track. It's to the point where men are falling left and right and we are just dieing off, while women are living longer and longer. I don't need to be a seasoned nurse to know that, or to have that vision.