Advice for Nursing schools please!

mrsboots87 · Feb 9, 2015

Correct me if wrong. You don't like this school because even after lecture and personal study time, you think it's the lack of "experienced" tutors that is causing you to fail? I hate to break it to you, but what you are explaining is the norm for nursing programs. You are expected to show up and study. In most areas, the free tutors from the school are students who have passed the courses with a good enough grade to show competency in helping others. You can't expect a "better" tutor without paying for it and even then, without finding out why YOU are failing, not the school and not the tutor, but YOU, then you will likely fail another program. Your best bet is to meet with an instructor to see where you are going wrong. Obviously what you are doing now isn't working so you need to fix the problem, then either buck up and try to pass, or fail and apply for re admission. But in the end it is not the schools job the ensure you pass. It is the instructors job to teach and then your job to go home and study until you understand. Not everyone will make it in the end. GL

Apple8 · Feb 9, 2015

RescueNinjaKy · Feb 9, 2015

The reality in nursing school is that most who get in were straight A's and few B's students too. And it is not uncommon that a school have a drastically lower graduation number. In order for a school to remain accredited, nclex scores have to be above a certain percentage, which is why most nursing schools are designed to weed out a big portion of the students who started

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 9, 2015

The reality in nursing school is that most who get in were straight A's and few B's students too. And it is not uncommon that a school have a drastically lower graduation number. In order for a school to remain accredited, nclex scores have to be above a certain percentage, which is why most nursing schools are designed to weed out a big portion of the students who started

Exactly backwards. Schools do not accept a high percentage of people they know will fail just to keep up their NCLEX passing score percentage. The passing percentage of a school's first-time takers is higher because the standards of the school were high enough to deny sub-par aspirants the degree they couldn't earn.

I have told this story before, but here it is again. Every year our program would admit about 25% more students than we knew we would be keeping, because no matter how well-qualified the applicants, in about three weeks about that many would be in our offices crying because they 1) didn't know they'd have to see naked old people, 2) didn't know school would be so hard, 3) thought it would be more like on TV, 4) thought they could just do mother-baby and didn't have to do med-surg and psych and all that other stuff too in school, 5) didn't know how much responsibility a nurse has, 6) were shocked that they had to see/hear/smell/touch things like .... etc., etc. "I always wanted to be a nurse like my mother/my auntie/my neighbor/my pediatrician's nurse/Cherry Ames," they wail as they come to withdraw.

There was really no way to predict these people. Likewise, it was competitive to get admitted, but even though we only accepted academically qualified people there was no reliable way to tell who was going to "get" nursing and the different way you have to study and integrate past knowledge in it. And I have the feeling that even if there were such a test, the people who had a drreeeeeaaaammmm and passsssssiooooooonnnn and always wanted to be a nurse wouldn't have believed us if we didn't accept them based on it.

RescueNinjaKy · Feb 10, 2015

Exactly backwards. Schools do not accept a high percentage of people they know will fail just to keep up their NCLEX passing score percentage. The passing percentage of a school's first-time takers is higher because the standards of the school were high enough to deny sub-par aspirants the degree they couldn't earn.
I have told this story before, but here it is again. Every year our program would admit about 25% more students than we knew we would be keeping, because no matter how well-qualified the applicants, in about three weeks about that many would be in our offices crying because they 1) didn't know they'd have to see naked old people, 2) didn't know school would be so hard, 3) thought it would be more like on TV, 4) thought they could just do mother-baby and didn't have to do med-surg and psych and all that other stuff too in school, 5) didn't know how much responsibility a nurse has, 6) were shocked that they had to see/hear/smell/touch things like .... etc., etc. "I always wanted to be a nurse like my mother/my auntie/my neighbor/my pediatrician's nurse/Cherry Ames," they wail as they come to withdraw.

There was really no way to predict these people. Likewise, it was competitive to get admitted, but even though we only accepted academically qualified people there was no reliable way to tell who was going to "get" nursing and the different way you have to study and integrate past knowledge in it. And I have the feeling that even if there were such a test, the people who had a drreeeeeaaaammmm and passsssssiooooooonnnn and always wanted to be a nurse wouldn't have believed us if we didn't accept them based on it.

I think you misinterpreted what I said, I didn't say that they accepted a high number of people just to keep up nclex scores, rather that the reality of many nursing school, at least in my time, is that the amount of people who graduate is usually a substantially lower number than the amount of people they accepted in the first place.

Why? Because it's exactly what you said, it's designed to weed out those who you described in 1,2,3,4,5. Also, like you said, not a lot of people "get" nursing so they fail. The resulting remainders are the ones who passed the rigors of nursing school who Will then graduate, and who the school believes will do well on the nclex on the first try because they made through the academic and clinical during school that is supposed to prepare them for the nclex.

RescueNinjaKy · Feb 10, 2015

Exactly backwards. Schools do not accept a high percentage of people they know will fail just to keep up their NCLEX passing score percentage. The passing percentage of a school's first-time takers is higher because the standards of the school were high enough to deny sub-par aspirants the degree they couldn't earn.
I have told this story before, but here it is again. Every year our program would admit about 25% more students than we knew we would be keeping, because no matter how well-qualified the applicants, in about three weeks about that many would be in our offices crying because they 1) didn't know they'd have to see naked old people, 2) didn't know school would be so hard, 3) thought it would be more like on TV, 4) thought they could just do mother-baby and didn't have to do med-surg and psych and all that other stuff too in school, 5) didn't know how much responsibility a nurse has, 6) were shocked that they had to see/hear/smell/touch things like .... etc., etc. "I always wanted to be a nurse like my mother/my auntie/my neighbor/my pediatrician's nurse/Cherry Ames," they wail as they come to withdraw.

There was really no way to predict these people. Likewise, it was competitive to get admitted, but even though we only accepted academically qualified people there was no reliable way to tell who was going to "get" nursing and the different way you have to study and integrate past knowledge in it. And I have the feeling that even if there were such a test, the people who had a drreeeeeaaaammmm and passsssssiooooooonnnn and always wanted to be a nurse wouldn't have believed us if we didn't accept them based on it.

Ah I see the confusion, I was responding to the op but it appears she deleted her "angry" retort to a previous poster in which she claims that the poster was assuming that she's stupid and that the school is definitely wrong.

The gist of it is that she said there's an issue with school and not herself because as a previous straight A's and few B's student, she shouldn't be failing. And that the school is obviously on the wrong if the amount of people graduating is lower than the amount of people who started.

I should've quoted it.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2015

The gist of it is that she said there's an issue with school and not herself because as a previous straight A's and few B's student, she shouldn't be failing. And that the school is obviously on the wrong if the amount of people graduating is lower than the amount of people who started.
I should've quoted it.

Nobody can assume that the school is "on the wrong" because not everybody graduates. We see plenty of people here who had As and Bs in prereqs who bomb out in nursing. That is not the nursing program's fault. That's what I meant to communicate in my last paragraph.

There was really no way to predict these people. Likewise, it was competitive to get admitted, but even though we only accepted academically qualified people there was no reliable way to tell who was going to "get" nursing and the different way you have to study and integrate past knowledge in it. And I have the feeling that even if there were such a test, the people who had a drreeeeeaaaammmm and passsssssiooooooonnnn and always wanted to be a nurse wouldn't have believed us if we didn't accept them based on it.

RescueNinjaKy · Feb 10, 2015

Nobody can assume that the school is "on the wrong" because not everybody graduates. We see plenty of people here who had As and Bs in prereqs who bomb out in nursing. That is not the nursing program's fault. That's what I meant to communicate in my last paragraph.

Yep exactly what I was trying to convey to op, just about all of us were straight A's. Nursing school is tough, don't assume that because you were that kind of student before that you Will or should pass.

Nursing school is a whole complete ball game, if whether you pass or fail comes down to whether your school hires professional tutors or previously successful student tutors then more than likely the problem lies in yourself. It does not mean that you're not smart, just that you can be not used to the format or there is a disconnect in your understanding.

As always, go to your professor and review exams and see if they can help you identify where you made an error. Then practice practice practice.