Weeding out?

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It seem's like everyone is always telling me which semester is the "weeding out" semester. And everyone has a different opinion of which that is. So, I'm curious to know what the masses think. IS there a weeding out semester? Or will it be uniformly difficult throughout the program?

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Specializes in ER trauma, ICU - trauma, neuro surgical.

I think the weeding out is the pre-req's and the newer add-on to apply (micro, chem, patho). If students can't pass micro or patho, then the program son't work out.

It will be difficult throughout the program. Probably more time consuming than anything. There will be students who don't make it. That weeding process catches the people that aren't cut out to be nurses.

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That's good to hear. I'm just finishing up my first semester of clinicals and honestly, it hasn't been all that bad. Yes, there's a lot of material and time consuming for sure. I've just heard these horror stories and am in classes with people who are retaking because they failed last semester - and I don't get it yet. I guess I'm just scared that there's going to be a point where the hammer drops and it suddenly doesn't come easily to me anymore. (I don't want to say easy, I'm working for it - just that I'm not struggling with the material like a lot of my classmates)

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I know for my program the "weeding out" semester is the second semester. This is when we have pharm, Med-Surg 1, and our skills become more than the CNA stuff. A lot of people had a hard time with the critical thinking questions. Many students were used to memorization.

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Specializes in L&D.

I fully believe the weeding out is Fundamentals(our first qtr) and then the 1st qtr of medsurg. That's where we lost the most students. We still lost some in our 3rd qtr(medsurg 2), but it was just maybe 1 or 2 vs 4-5 kwim?

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

It really depends on the school. Our sister program is a weeding out PROGRAM. Instructors wielding the axe from beginning to end. Mine? Not so much. The only people we've lost left by choice, not for grades or pressure from our instructors. The people who are struggling have the professors bending over backwards to help them. I've heard 2nd semester is pretty much a breeze once you've survived the first, but that we lose people again in the third.

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Specializes in ED.

In my ADN program, every semester is the weeding out semester, lol. I heard as a new student that ifyou got through 1st semester, you were golden. Then we lost 3 students and moved onto second. We lost about five that semester. Then came third, and we were actually the first class ever to not lose anyone in med-surg 2, but lost one to OB. Then got to fourth where they said no one failed, and lost two. And the semester behind us just lost 15 students. A good idea is just to ignore what people say and do your best ;) IMO? 3rd semester in our program is the hardest. But it's different for everyone.

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In my program, we have lost many, not 5 or 6 but like 20-30 people fell out on the first semester. Now, this doesn't mean that this was the weeding out semester. From what we are told, the next largest group of students "fail out" during the summer semester which is the 3rd semester. There was a test on the very first day that people failed and could no longer progress. We can't take it lightly in our program and have to dig our heels deep. The summer is known to throw out 20-30 more. We started with 70. Now were down to 40.

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The third semester!! Yes 1 and 2 were hard but nothing like the third. We started with 80 and lost 20 in the first 10 in the second and 32 in the third, all but 2 were due to grades. They said that only one or 2 will fail the final semester. We kept thinking that it wouldn't get harder, but it certainly did. In no way was per-Reqs like weeding out in nursing program in my experience.

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Interesting thing is that before they even know who we're losing (there are a lot right on the border line of pass/fail going into finals) - They only have 100 clinical spots available for our class that started with 120. So that means they figure they'll lose at least 20 the first semester... crazy! I should check and see how many they offer for 3, 4, and 5!

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Specializes in L&D.
That's good to hear. I'm just finishing up my first semester of clinicals and honestly, it hasn't been all that bad. Yes, there's a lot of material and time consuming for sure. I've just heard these horror stories and am in classes with people who are retaking because they failed last semester - and I don't get it yet. I guess I'm just scared that there's going to be a point where the hammer drops and it suddenly doesn't come easily to me anymore. (I don't want to say easy, I'm working for it - just that I'm not struggling with the material like a lot of my classmates)

You know what, I've been thinking that way, too. When will it be really difficult like everybody says it is?! I haven't been struggling. I'm wondering when it gets crazy hard.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

In my program, 2nd semester seemed to be the "weeding out" semester. The classes are Med-Surg I and Pharmacology... but because of the way our cohort's schedule fell, we had to take it during the 8 week summer semester instead of the usual 16 week semester. With two tough classes and a 12 hour clinical day each week, it was difficult. We lost 10 people and over half of the class was borderline passing at the time of finals.

First & third semester were both easy to me. OB/Peds is up next and shouldn't be to bad, but we are taking Critical Care over the summer and I think it might be another difficult semester, especially to take in the 8 week semester :/

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