Broke Foot=withdraw from nursing school

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Hey this is my first post. But I need advice I broke my foot 2 weeks ago and have had to withdraw from nursing school because of it. I have to be on crutches I could not do clinical for 4 weeks and they would have failed out. SO my advice needed is do I wait the YEAR til next fall to get into the RN program and finish it then or do I transfer to another college and start an Accelerated BSN program in May and finish it in July? Either way I am pushed back a year until i finish my degree. Just wanted some thoughts if anyone is in an accelerated program and can give me an idea of how fast paced etc? Thanks

Freak

From a program perspective, they are required by the state that you complete a certain number of clinical hours. They are only allowed a certain time at the hospital per the hospital's contract. They simply cannot accommodate an illness or injury that would require a significant amount of clinical make up time. It has nothing to do with empathy (or lack thereof) and everything to do with meeting the requirements for the state to provide your education.

There's a difference between making you withdraw from clinical and forcing you to withdraw from the whole program. If I wasn't able to make up my clinical hours (due to my broken toe) I would have had to retake my clinical course next semester. They would not have forced me to withdraw from the program or from the non-clinical class I'm enrolled in. I think that there are some schools that are not willing to work with students and some that are.

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Why would you continue the theory portion if you can't do the clinical? In the majority of programs, clinicals and theory build on one another. They aren't separate classes that can be taken at separate times. If they keep you in theory but you don't do clinicals, and then they keep you in clinicals the next year...you've taken two students' spots for the price of one, and you are STILL a year back. From the school's standpoint it would be completely idiotic, a waste of money and of space, to keep someone in a class when they can't do a significant portion of the class and will have to retake it anyway in the next term.

No one at the school is being mean; they are being practical.

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Why would you continue the theory portion if you can't do the clinical? In the majority of programs, clinicals and theory build on one another. They aren't separate classes that can be taken at separate times. If they keep you in theory but you don't do clinicals, and then they keep you in clinicals the next year...you've taken two students' spots for the price of one, and you are STILL a year back. From the school's standpoint it would be completely idiotic, a waste of money and of space, to keep someone in a class when they can't do a significant portion of the class and will have to retake it anyway in the next term.

No one at the school is being mean; they are being practical.

In my school there are classes that don't have a clinical portion, do not have certain clinicals as prereqs and can be taken independently of clinical courses. For example, my friend did not pass Med-Surg I last fall, so in the spring she took Discipline II & III, Research and an elective. Then in the summer she retook Med-Surg I and came back on track with our cohort to graduate this December. She wasn't taking anyone's space in clinical two times.

I would understand if some schools didn't want to do that, but there's no sense in forcing a student to withdraw from school, just have them start the following semester. I don't see the practicality in making someone withdraw from school who is performing well academically and has a very legitimate reason for not being able to complete clinical.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

BluegrassRN: thanks for speaking from the other side of the fence :)

tattoo: were you actually told your time at your school is over? Or just until you recover?

tattoo (and others who are/were in the same boat): It is much easier said than done, to "just make up the clinicals". I was a clinical coordinator, and it is hard enough to obtain and retain clinical sites, and ensure that all students are complain with the requirements of each institution (medicals, background/drug checks, immunizations and titers). Not to mention keeping students (and ffaculty) in line; making sure no one is without ID, dressed appropriately, and not 'visiting' other units (b/c everyone wants to rotate through ER and ICU... whether or not our contract specifies we can). Nursing schools are at the mercy of the hospitals, and it is not easy to walk in to one and "just" make alternate arrangements. I can't begin to tell you how many students kindly suggest some of the most outlandish things. They really have no idea what it's like to keep a good working relationship with the clinical sites.

Regarding schools being 'mean' and 'unempathetic': it is all about liability. If you showed up to work, on any unit where you are not just sitting there, with any sort of injury, you would be sent home. If you are limping, have any sort of cast/brace/ace, you cannot physically perfrom your duties at full capacity. Nursing is an extremely physical job. If they let you stay and you injured yourself even more (or God forbid put your patient at risk b/c you were favoring your hip/leg/arm), that would be a serious legal issue.

This is what it's all about... it's not that we hate you and don't want you to pass. :rolleyes:

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The Professor's at my school are very compassionate, but I'd still need to withdraw for the term (which would be for the year, as each course is only offered once a year) if I couldn't participate in clinicals for a month.

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Well guys, here is my dilemma. I broke my foot at work.  I am currently enrolled in a LPN to RN course.  They told me that I would have to withdraw from nursing school.  I am not on crutches and I do wear a boot.  The problem is I completed my last 3 weeks of clinicals on the boot.  The next to last clinical day my instructor pulled me to the side and told me a lot of things that hurt.  She stated my Dr. excuse was invalid, she stated she felt like I was a liability and that I shouldn't be there.  I did everything in clinical that I was supposed to but she wants to fail me because of my boot and had a big list of dates that she supposedly got from other peers that I said, and even commented on me smoking in my car before clinical.  So bottom line when I used the open-door policy, they went ballistic.  This entire clinical rotation she has made us leave early 4 hrs per day and we have lost 36 hrs of clinical.  Im not sure what will happen to me but she stated I wasn't trying.  I am enrolled in 2 separate colleges to advance, I I have showed up to school on a boot constantly hurting, and didn't stop.  My problem is how can she have dates of here say that isn't even accurate and want to fail me from a course for what she believes unprofessional because I used the open door policy.

Nursing school is rough guys Im glad this semester is over but I do believe she is going to fail me even though I did what I was supposed to.  

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