Can they get away with this?

Nursing Students General Students

Published

First of all, good afternoon and thank you for providing such a wonderful site! I don't intend for this to be an outlet for my frustration, but if it becomes such, I apologize!

I am in this spring's class of graduating nurses. I have finished the last semester with a high B average. My graduating class has endured a significant amount of discrimination from our instructors (a few bad apples - who did fail- have caused us all to be persecuted). I know this sounds extreme, but in short, the entire testing format was changed on us, we were accused of cheating each semester, tests were changed to be as complex as possible, and requirements for graduation were changed last minute. :angryfire

The last stroke is this (hence my question): A competency test was implemented three years ago. the competency test is written by Kaplan. The past three classes were given the same test (all passed). The instructors selected a new test for us this year. If you fail, you can retake it once the next day. if you fail on the second attempt, you fail nursing school (despite passing the nursing courses). Kaplan recommended the passing grade to be 50%. Our instructors did not set the passing grade until after the test had been completed by all students. The passing grade was set by taking only the highest grade(73) and the lowest grade (51) and averaging them (making the passing grade 63). the average grade in the class was a 58. Hence, only 13 out of 60 passed.:uhoh3:

Can they do this legally? the test was not really comprehensive (roughly 50% was psychiatric, 25% was material not covered, 10 % was OB, and the remaining 15% was general med/surg) Psychiatric material is covered in Med/surg 2 and lasts all of two class periods. At a time when we should feel proud to have come this far, we are all terrified that we have wasted lots of $ and time, and that we won't be able to fulfill our goal of becoming nurses! I would be proud to work with nearly all of the students graduating with us and the only people who had questionable character have already failed. We retake the exam tomorrow morning. If anyone has any knowledge of what possible options we have, I would love to hear them! thanks again!:nono:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

You probably have grounds for a grievance. When I graduated we got a new DON for the second year. At the start of the last semester she changed the course passing grade from 70% to 75%....nothing wrong with that in itself, but it should not have been implemented for my class at the end of the whole thing like that. There were several students who were all of a sudden in danger of failing nursing school because of that. We, as a class, grieved it and won. It was changed back to 70% for our class and the one behind us, and implemented for the new classes coming up.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Adult ER.

i would also add take a look at your faculty of nursings policy manual as well as if you are at a college there student rights manual. where i am you can appeal or grieve a decision if you feel that its unfair and there are advocates to help fight for your rights. in my program they were not allowed to change anything from the policy on us as we had only agreed to the set policies from when we entered our program. other classes may have been affected but generally we were safe.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Room.

Sounds like a load of horse-poo. At my school, they were changing requiremnts all through the 2 years, and each time, it only affected the students who had not been accepted yet...not the ones who were already in the program. Plus, it sounds like the way they decided on the passing grade was meant to fail many of your classmates. Is your dean behind this? Go to the dean of the college if needed - if you're telling us the whole story, then this sounds completely unfair and unnecessary.

How terrible to make it through your entire education and be stuck in a situation like this just before graduation.

Good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

If after taking all reasonable avenues of resolution, they stand firm in their decision to fail the vast majority of your class, I would be sure to utter the words "class action lawsuit" in the presence of the program director and the dean. :trout: (and follow through).

I hope this turns out well for you and your classmates. Raising the bar for graduation at this late stage in the game is unfair.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

Yes please dispute these practices so they know they can't get away with it and let us know the outcome! Good luck on that test!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Gosh, one of the main points that sticks out in your post is what kind of nursing program has only two classes in regards to psych ??????

I'm thinking psych is at least a 6 week if not a semester long class for most reputable nursing programs.

I have no advice on the rest.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in MICU.

I agree, most students are "grandfathered" in when they make changes, so it only affects new students.

However, I'm sure somewhere in your student handbook (you know, that thing that we use as a doorstop? hehehe) there's some disclaimer about the faculty being able to change course requirements @ any time, blah blah blah... they did it to us in our last 8 weeks because a few bad apples were doing stupid $&%$#, so of course we all had to suffer.

That being said, still file a grievance and follow the chain of commmand. I know this won't help you for tomorrow- still, go in, do the best that you can, and continue your course because you will graduate. I doubt the entire college/university wants the bad reputation of failing a majority of their nursing class, so your protests will be taken up.

Good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

This does not surprise me. It seems that those who hold the most power in a profession make the dumbest decisions and abuse the power.

As a whole your class needs to protest this. The lamest part is they make their own teaching look incompetent if so many of you do not pass that test. Some tests stink by the way and Kaplan is a big money maker so they make their tests harder so you have to pay them for a test review.

Good luck, and we have a nursing shortage...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Gosh, one of the main points that sticks out in your post is what kind of nursing program has only two classes in regards to psych ??????

I'm thinking psych is at least a 6 week if not a semester long class for most reputable nursing programs.

I have no advice on the rest.

Not in a two year program.

I'm sorry. It really stinks that you guys are being put through this.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Rehab, Step-down,Tele,Hospice.

Not to nitpick but I graduated from a 2 year program and we had an entire semester of Psych.

To the OP please let us know the outcome and Good Luck

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, ER and ICU!!!.

My school did the same to us, We filed a grievance and nearly everyone passed. (They took the test and averaged it in to the rest of our tests.) Good luck and keep us posted.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment