What does your school do with students who fail nursing classes?

Alternator81 · Feb 17, 2008

In my program, you can only retake 1 class. So, if you fail one, you fall back to the class behind you. If you fail 2, you are out.

SummerGarden, BSN, MSN, RN · Feb 17, 2008

My school does a combo of both of your posts. My school's old policy forced repeaters to wait a semester but that has changed... One fail and you must re-apply. However, you are allowed to return the following semester if there is room in the class behind. If there is no room, you can re-mediate with an instructor for a semester (or a year) in order to stay fresh to repeat when there is room.

In the case of those failing first semester you must at least remain out for one semester before given a chance to start again. Many find that he/she is having to wait a year because there usually is not any room in first semester.

The first semester repeaters must compete with the incoming class. If he/she did not have high grades coming in the first time, the chances of beating out the incoming students is low and the student must retake a class etc. to compete or hope an incoming student messes up an entrance requirement.

Two failures and the student is out. There are no more chances to repeat after two fails.

sunnysideup09 · Feb 17, 2008

Our school gives students many, many chances. If they fail, they do not need to reapply. They are to sit out the next time that course is taught and then can retake the course. There is a time limit on how long the students have to complete the entire program, but the students can retake course failures as many times as needed. I know a student who is retaking a course for the third time!

MB37 · Feb 17, 2008

We are allowed to fail or withdraw - they have the same consequences - twice in our academic careers. You can't fail the same course twice, if you do, you are welcome to change majors or to apply to a different CON. If you fail, say, MS 1, you will not be able to enroll in MS 2 the next semester. Instead, you have to wait until the next time MS1 is offered - could be the next semester, or you may have to sit out. You cannot progress with your clinical group if you fail any of the "core" classes - Fundamentals, MS1, MS2, Psych, OB, or Peds. Your spot in the next MS1 class is only open after all the students who are "in sequence" have already registered, so if they all passed from the semester before you have to sit out again. Plus, when you progress to MS 2 if you do pass, you will have to hope someone else failed and there is an open clinical spot.

I don't know a single person who has actually done any of this. I do know people who have dropped and/or failed non-core classes, so as to pass their core classes and not get "out of sequence." However, then they have to tack that class on again in the next semester, and our program gets tougher as you go. The only girl in our group to actually fail out so far dropped pharm the first time she took it, reenrolled in the fall, and failed. She is no longer welcome in the program, they do not make exceptions.

bluangel215 · Feb 17, 2008

At my school if you fail a class, you have to wait to retake it the following year. We have a few students in my class now who are retaking med/surg. You also have to wait a full year to come back if you fail the calculations exam. If you fail more than 2 classes then you are kicked out.

LaceyRN · Feb 17, 2008

Our school has new stricter rules:

Students who fail a core nursing course are dismissed from the program. They must re-apply for admission to the program while they sit out a semester, they are put back into the new applicant mix and are not guaranteed readmission. If they approved for readmission, they cannot fail another course or they are permanently dismissed.

In the best case scenario, the student will graduate 1 year after their original class.

Shenanigans, RN · Feb 17, 2008

Down here the BN programme is 3 years, but you have 5 years to do it in - so it allows people to do it part time, or have a few fails.

You can fail a theory paper 3 times, so if you failed it in the first semester, you can come back in the second semester and do it - theory papers are like sciences, communications et cetera. You can fail a partical paper only twice, so that's like the nursing knowledge and practice papers, if you fail in first semester you can repeat in second. So you don't have to wait aroudn for ages to repeat.

Of course, some papers are only offered in one particular semester, so if you fail that, you will have to wait another 6 months.

However, if you do fail somethign too many times, or take longer then 5 years you can write to the Nursing Council and beg for an extension. I know people who are up to their 6th year and have failed multiple papers multiple times.

Not being racist or anything, but you've got more chance of getting mercy if your skin colour isn't white...

kaylajane08 · Feb 18, 2008

My college's guidelines are a lot like others. At my college's program in Oregon, if you fail a class, you have to retake the class the next year.

DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP · Feb 18, 2008

In my program, you can only retake 1 class. So, if you fail one, you fall back to the class behind you. If you fail 2, you are out.

:yeahthat:

My school is the same way

APBT mom, LPN, RN · Feb 18, 2008

The way it works at my school is if you fail/withdraw from a class in order to get back in you have to take the finals from the previous two classes and pass. So if you failed m/s II you would have to take the final for m/s I and NC II and pass both. If you fail one of those exams you get another try at that exam. If you fail it for the second time you have to retake that class and you get to have the better of those two scores depending if you pass or not.

You also get three chances to get back into the program once you've failed/withdrawn. If you pass everything that they require the only way that you able to be accepted back into the program is if there's enough room for you in the class. If not you have to sit out until the next class and hope there's room. You have to start and finish the program within 3 years. If not you start all over again.

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Feb 18, 2008

Where I teach, you get two chances. You can fail the same nursing course twice, or fail two different nursing courses (non nursing courses d not count, unless it drops your GPA too low. After you fail once, you are placed on academic probation if your GPA is between 1.5 and 1.9. You still need to reapply to the program, basically just a letter stating your intentions and what is going on in your life right now, and why you feel you should be readmitted into the program. If your GPA falls below 1.5, you are dismissed from the program.

edited to add: You have to wait a year, because we only admit students once a year. So if you fail 101 in the fall, you have to wait until next fall because there is no 101 in the spring. So while it does stink, you are pretty much guaranteed a seat, because the admissions committee who is admitting for the next fall class is well aware of how many potential repeaters there will be (and there aren't usually that many, b/c it is a small school). And for those who have to repeat, they spend their "off" semester getting ahead on their other co-requisites, which will lighten their load later on.