Clinical hours

Nursing Students LPN/LVN Students

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I am recently in the LPN program in Kansas. I have one month left until graduation. I have straight A's this semester and am very proud of it. I received an email this morning from the clinical director (who has never really liked me) saying that due to too many missed clinical hours(12 to be exact) without "extreme circumstances" they were failing me for my med-surge II clincals and administrativly withdrawing me from all other classes. I do however have circumstances, just not to their knowledge. I was going through a miscarriage while starting this semester, and have recently left the father of my child, which leads to me being a single mom. Just wanting some advice as to what I should do? Thank you for your time.

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You can either try to provide them with your proof or suck it up & move on. Honestly, 12 clinical hours is a lot to miss. Does your school have a make up policy?

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In certain schools, you are aloud to miss a certain amount of hrs. Look at your school policy for missed hrs and make ups, bring in doctor notes, and see what they say good luck hun

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

If you missed that many hours in my program you would not meet the minimum to graduate and sit for the NCLEX by the state board of nursing.

Does your school has an absence policy? Many times if you have a medical reason for absences you are permitted to withdraw for the current semester and resume the next semester/class without significant penalty.

Does your school have a policy to make up clinical or classroom hours? Most state boards of nursing require the school to have a written policy regarding absences and clinical absences.

In my school if you exceeded the maximum number of clinical absences (8 hours total or 4 hours from a specialty rotation) you had the option to pay out of pocket for a clinical instructor to precept you at an appropriate clinical site (assuming a facility would agree to an extension of a clinical placement contract as the contracts ran the academic year) and any fees required by the clinical site (some private facilities required a clinical fee from the school). The last I heard the rate was $75/hr for a clinical instructor with a 3 hour minimum. (so even if you worked together for only 2 hours you were still obligated to pay a minimum of $225.) 12 hours could cost you nearly $1000, if not more, and would not be covered by financial aid.

You can try to appeal (follow whatever policy is in your school's handbook/policy book) but if you did not provide medical excuses at the time it may be fruitless. Some physicians won't write medical excuses significantly after the fact and the school appeals committee may question why you didn't say anything when the issues occurred rather than wait until you are threatened with dismissal from the program. There are often short time limits on the ability to appeal depending on what state you are in (I've seen appeals being required within 3 business days of notice to withdraw/suspend/expel from school. )

Were you admitted to the hospital during the miscarriage? Did you require bed rest? Will your treating health care provider be willing to provide a written medical excuse for any clinical absences during that period?

(Personally I'd not recommend presenting leaving the father of your child and becoming a single mother as a relevant extenuating circumstance but do what you feel is best to make your case)

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I would tell them about the miscarriage and get a doctors note to back you up.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

I am very sorry for everything negative that has happened to you.

Unfortunately, the school probably does not have much choice in the matter. The school is accredited based on their plan to have their students complete a certain number of clinical hours, and the school may not be able to bend their rules even in extreme circumstances. You can try with a doctor's note for the miscarriage. I don't think the school is going to change their minds on the basis of having left the father of your child. (FWIW, it does not matter one way or the other if the program director does or does not like you.)

I wish you all the best, but be prepared for going through the class again.

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You need to check your policy for your program which it should have been thoroughly explained to you in orientation and you should have a copy of it. There's nothing you can do now about but repeat the course why didn't you have a written excuse when you missed and worked it out at that time?

At my school you are allowed 25NI's (needs improvement) scores during clinical rotation for the semester for 2 classes. If your late that's 4.333, if you don't show with a call that's 6, if you don't call that's an auto U ( unsatisfactory), you get 2 U's you fail clinical and if you fail the clinical you fail the course. Clinical day has to be made up depending on how many NIs you accumulated you could possible still pass with missing 2 days that's if your assignments are perfect and you don't make big mistakes on the floor. And our school follows contact hour policy by state guidelines you only can miss 1 day of class without having to make it up anything else has to be made up before finals or you fell the theory as well.

If you weren't gonna show to clinical you had to call them to let them know that day before the end of the shift. If you have to miss a class day and if it just so happens to be a test day or checkoff you had to call them or send an email to them letting them know you won't be there and why, in order to make up the exams.

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