Just finished my 2nd semester and failed along with many others. There were many discrepancies in my program that are listed in my letter to the chairperson of the Nursing department. Since our professors set us up for failure through BS education and lies I decided to throw them both under the bus. Do we stand a chance for our grade to be appealed? Most of us are 1-4 points within a passing grade. Those that did pass were just over that line. Professor X is notorious for listed reasons around our program (even those who have not had her as a professor) and outside of the school from nurses we have run into on clinical sites. And Professor Y lied to us to hurt our grades. 12 students agreed to allow me to CC them to state the facts are true, 3 students BCC’d, and a few others to remain anonymous. Thoughts?
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Professor E (chairperson),
I recently finished the 2nd semester (Maternity and Psychiatric Nursing Care - Nur 212) and have some deep concerns about the fairness of the program. I, and the students CC’d in this email* (as well as additional unnamed students who fear retaliation if they participate) feel it is important to raise certain concerns for the sake of our careers, our experience in (school name here), and the experience of future students. Included in this group are students who passed the course, as well as students who did not pass. All of us have the same concerns regardless of the outcome of our grades.
Overall, we believe that the class was not set up to allow students to succeed in a meaningful way due to the way the coursework was presented, taught, and tested. In addition, we don’t feel that we have been prepared to pass the course exams, as the course strategy was often “off-book,” non-linear, and often incomprehensible. This was not the experience of other students who were taught by other professors, as we learned after speaking with evening class students who do not report experiencing the same level of challenge with their professor. Additionally, to our knowledge, they had a much higher pass-rate than our class. We would thus request your review of the following points:
- We were underprepared and immediately behind the curve at the beginning of the semester because we were told we would be given an intense reading assignment over the Summer of 2021 that would prepare us for the Maternal and Newborn Nursing course. This reading was never distributed to the class.
- Professor X’ exams were on an advanced level of Nursing that was unrealistic, considering both our current level of critical knowledge and the mandatory (and expensive) prep material we purchased, which inadequately prepared us to pass these exams regardless of the time and effort spent in study.
- Professor X taught on the assumption that we were already educated in certain areas of Fundamentals of Nursing--information that we had never learned in the previous semester.
- Professor X stated she disagreed with the material in the required textbook. As dense as our coursework already is, this only made the experience more confusing, forced us to pursue further research for information she considered accurate, and unnecessarily complicated our curriculum.
- Professor X was either late to respond to student emails, or they were ignored. Personally, I asked for help on study strategy for success on the final exam 9 days in advance, and received a reply 48 hours before finals—far too late to be of any help.
- Professor Y, prior to her exams, inaccurately told us that we should focus on medication classes--not medication names. In fact, we were questioned on the exam for medication names. This cost us further points and significantly impacted our grade in the course. Upon confrontation with this discrepancy, Professor Y agreed that she had given us a false study tip, but was unwilling to remediate the situation, either by allowing us to retake the exam or to remediate that particular grade.
• - Prior to the final exam, Professor Y downplayed the difficulty of her exam, stating that her portion was ‘mild’ and that she recycles her questions from previous exams. Upon sitting for the test, we found it to be challenging and that the basic review of former material and questions that we had done in preparation left us unprepared. A far more in- depth focus on the material would have been required in order to successfully pass the test.
In sum, we believe your review of the course and our grades is in order. We invite you to have a conversation with us to discuss this experience, and to figure out the best way to move forward in a fair and equitable way. We strongly believe that many students who did not pass this course have fairly earned the right to move on to their next semester without repeating this set of classes – especially given the high costs (finances, time, personal sacrifice) associated with taking the class again.
Considering this experience, you can understand how dispirited many of us are—some even to the point of rethinking their future in this school, if not this career. Given that we were only allowed two on-site clinical experiences due to the pandemic, we also believe that consideration should be made for the lack of on-site educational benefits of an applied science.
We are eager to hear your thoughts on these matters. Please let us know your
availability to speak with us as a group. Since the next semester begins on January 28th, and we must have our plans in order well before then, we would appreciate an honest reply as soon as possible.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We would not have come forward if we didn’t truly believe we had a case.
Best regards,
My Name | Phone Number
*Please note: CC’d students have given me permission to include them in this letter with agreeance that the follow facts stated are true.
On 12/26/2021 at 8:24 AM, StudentGamerAthlete said:
I have not taken a pharmacology course. This will come when I reach my BSN (currently in an ADN program).
OK back to this issue, you had a class that talked about medications as you mentioned. Taught by professor Y (focus on medication classes, not medication names); What was the name of this course? What is your explanation that in your ADN program there is NOT a pharmacology course? This makes zero sense. It’s usually taught in first semester of most nursing programs along with fundamentals.
OK back to this issue, you had a class that talked about medications as you mentioned. Taught by professor Y (focus on medication classes, not medication names); What was the name of this course? What is your explanation that in your ADN program there is NOT a pharmacology course? This makes zero sense. It’s usually taught in first semester of most nursing programs along with fundamentals.
I feel I'm a snake that I've been talking about some of my classmates who are only interested in answers. Some days, they'd ditch me. They ruined my calendar, so I am upset with myself why I allowed them to use me. They view me now as inflexible and uncooperative. Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging them. I'm impatient with people who don't respect my time.
I'm not the most smartest kid in the class, but I'm a less pain in the neck of my teachers.
OK back to this issue, you had a class that talked about medications as you mentioned. Taught by professor Y (focus on medication classes, not medication names); What was the name of this course? What is your explanation that in your ADN program there is NOT a pharmacology course? This makes zero sense. It’s usually taught in first semester of most nursing programs along with fundamentals.
My school started with pharmacology. Second sem was another pharm. I had an exit exit for it, too. For this OP, it's a unique nursing school where only with BSN who can get a pharm course.
I had to do an appeal and won mine but that was a few years ago. I ended up transferring after the DON was asked to resign later that year. I went back and forth on thinking I was wrong and that it would come back to me and the other students that won the appeal, and that we would be targeted. We weren't targeted but blaming the teachers isn't wise. When you write an appeal it should NEVER be about what the instructors are doing wrong but what hardships you had individually, and what your plans will be to improve in the future.
Last semester I took psych, maternal newborn, algebra, composition 2, logic and critical thinking, then a 3 week statistics after the algebra. One morning on the way to my psych clinical I got a call at 5 am that my dad was being flown to a hospital from another hospital due to a ruptured triple A. He had a 9.7 x 7.9 aneurysm and made it 18 days in the hospital. We took him home and he passed the day after my birthday. All while attending school. I also was going through health issues, nothing severe but enough to complicate everything further. I ended up having a lupus flare and I am on strong pain medications which are hard to get because so many people have abused them. All this happened while I was taking psych which I passed and transitioning to maternal health. Maternal health was the hardest by far---I passed every one of my classes going through all of it and I don't know how.
So what I am saying is it's probably not all the instructors to blame. Even if so many students failed there will still be some that has passed and that is what is looked at. Even if there are 30 students and half fail it doesn't matter. The best thing to do is to look within and realize that things won't just be handed to you. Nursing school is rough and if you really want it you will be able to do it!
So what I am saying is it's probably not all the instructors to blame. Even if so many students failed there will still be some that has passed and that is what is looked at. Even if there are 30 students and half fail it doesn't matter. The best thing to do is to look within and realize that things won't just be handed to you. Nursing school is rough and if you really want it you will be able to do it!
Nursing instructors are responsible for what they teach. Reading power points is not teaching. Students PAY for instruction.
Nursing instructors are responsible for what they teach. Reading power points is not teaching. Students PAY for instruction.
Wrong. The school hires and pays the instructors. The schools can't stay open without teachers. The schools couldn't stay open if they rely on the students. If you don't believe me, call the board of education. If the students are in private schools, they're still not paying the full cost of their education.
Wrong. The school hires and pays the instructors. The schools can't stay open without teachers. The schools couldn't stay open if they rely on the students. If you don't believe me, call the board of education. If the students are in private schools, they're still not paying the full cost of their education.
Well, the school has the responsibility with whatever fee agreement that is in place - free, partial or full cost to provide quality instructors that will provide a good instruction so that one has the proper opportunity to succeed in the class. Having mediocre teachers is not right. The board of education should step in and make sure the schools are acting appropriately.
The board of education should step in and make sure the schools are acting appropriately.
Florida is the only state where I know the nursing schools are controlled by the 'board of education' after approval by the Board of Nursing. After 3 years of NCLEX scores (10% below the national passing %), the school will be judged. Some schools instituted an Exit exam to prevent students from graduating if the thought was many students would fail.
In other states the Board of Nursing is the definitive judge of meeting the standards for state approval and continuing approval.
Can anyone complain higher up outside the school....the board of education perhaps to have someone come in (from outside) to look at thinks objectively? One should not be at the mercy of bad teachers....bad schools.
Well, the school has the responsibility with whatever fee agreement that is in place - free, partial or full cost to provide quality instructors that will provide a good instruction so that one has the proper opportunity to succeed in the class. Having mediocre teachers is not right. The board of education should step in and make sure the schools are acting appropriately.
The schools have to comply with the Board of Education's requirements and standards. Unfortunately, those students failed to meet them. And the schools can't stay open if they produce "mediocre," students. As a student, which I am, I do my best to study and learn. If I don't understand the materials, I learn them. If I still struggle, I ask my teachers. In general, I don't wait for my teachers to teach me. I read ahead of time.
Can anyone complain higher up outside the school....the board of education perhaps to have someone come in (from outside) to look at thinks objectively? One should not be at the mercy of bad teachers....bad schools.
PollywogNP, ADN, BSN, MSN, LPN, NP
237 Posts
OK back to this issue, you had a class that talked about medications as you mentioned. Taught by professor Y (focus on medication classes, not medication names); What was the name of this course? What is your explanation that in your ADN program there is NOT a pharmacology course? This makes zero sense. It’s usually taught in first semester of most nursing programs along with fundamentals.