I was just wondering how your schools handle missed clinical days.
At my school you are only allowed to miss one day of clinical and it must be made up at the end of the semester at a cost to you. Not sure how much it is.
In our second year we are allowed to miss 2 days of clinical but that is because we have clinical 2 days a week compared to our first year where we just have one.
If you miss more than the allowed amount of days you have to re-take the semester.
Anyway, if a student misses more than the allotted amount of clinical days are they automatically dropped from your program? Or, do they get to continue through the end of the semester and then dropped?
A girl in our class has missed 3 clinical days in our first semester and is still in the program. We are annoyed to say the least but know that the best way to make it through school is to keep your mouth closed and eyes and ears open. So, none of us is questioning this at all. We would never want to draw attention to ourselves. But, we are also wondering if the school will drop a big bomb on our classmate at the end of the semester and kick her out.
Just wondering how things are handled at other schools.
Why on earth do some of these schools treat you like children? I can't believe that if you're one minute late, they dismiss you for that day. That's not reasonable. Seems a lot of variation here - some places seem more flexible than others.
Well, I was right--my school's policy WAS about as bad as it gets!
We were tardy if we arrived after the roll sheet had been picked up, which was often a few minutes before the witching hour, if the instructor's watch was fast. However, we were responsible to get there BEFORE the sheet was picked up...
Two tardies equaled an absence. Two absences meant automatic failure. So, you could be an hour late or 30 seconds early, and it counted the same.....
But you could leave any number of times DURING lecture and that didn't count for anything....
Clinicals were about the same. We were made to make up tardies with written assignments. I was a total of 20 minutes late over two days (5 minutes one and 15 the next) and a classmate was tardy three days plus missed an entire day without calling in. We both got the same assignment....
Also, people who the Dean or instructors especially liked were given all sorts of leeway--including points added to exam grades so they could continue in the program.
After a semester of this, we got sore--especially when one of the "regulars" didn't get the half point he needed but one of the "pets" (it's not what we called them, but you get the idea) was permitted to stay with worse grades. We supported him when he asserted himself, and they were both kicked out.
Personally, it's another vote for distance learning.... At EC, I'm treated like an adult.
And to answer your question, MeredithT, we allow it because you have to give up a lot to be a nurse--it shows just how much we want to reach our goals.
Are you talking about the rotations, or just the classes? For rotations we are allowed to miss none, nada, zip! We also have theory and clinical seminar and clinical lab. I think those are worked out on a person to person basis.
I've come up with an answer to the whole nurses eat their young theory. Be too big to swallow!! Or too much to swallow. That's sugar and spice and all things that would make someone sick and make you want to spit them out instead of devouring them. Or being smarter than your instructor and answering other students questions that the instructor doesn't know during class. That's how you miss clinical and still pass around here.
Me, I always show up and even if I think I might be late, I show up an hour and a half early. I'm not kidding. I got some weird looks from the night shift waiting around for an hour and a half at 4:30 AM, but they liked the coffee that I made them. My clinical preceptor doesn't even know that I was early every clinical because she showed at 1 min. til and I still got the same drill sargeant routine as everyone else. I did not miss a clinical even though I worked 8 hours the same day when our clinicals were 6 hours. I have not missed a single clinical this year despite having sprained my low back several times and that clinicals are 12 hours long for two days with eight patients, and then they expect me to take a test the following morning. I'm not sure they know that I am human, but I better not make the mistake of showing it.
I recieved an unsatisfactory on a care plan last year because it was THREE days late, despite including the doctor's prescription to refrain from doing schoolwork for SEVEN days because the textbooks were over my weight lifting restriction. (Three unsatisfactories gets you failed). If you want to go through nursing school, don't ever make the mistake of needing medical care yourself. My problem is that they keep trying to eat me because I'm not percieved as the strong of my species, and I'm getting a bad attitude about it. There are places in the future career world where they expect you to be on time to care for patients without exception and you're taking over for someone whose worked the previous 12 hour shift and has to stay until you get there or your co-workers have to cover extra patients (even if it was because you were digging yourself out of an avalanche with a needle and a toothpick with two broken arms). If I ever make it through school I am NOT working at that place, and that's what I've learned from their x-treme standards.
Why on earth do some of these schools treat you like children? I can't believe that if you're one minute late, they dismiss you for that day. That's not reasonable. Seems a lot of variation here - some places seem more flexible than others.
M.
Because "Adults" need to be at work on time and reliable.
And because tardiness/abscences are incredibly rude and disrespectful of other peoples' time and obligations. They also endanger patient care. If you cannot get to Nursing class on time, what will you be like when you graduate.
It is truly sad that these "childish" rules are required to make Adults do the right thing, but unfortunately they are.
I haven't heard one program that seems at all lienent. I don't know that my school even has a policy regarding missing clinicals being tardy ect. All you have to do is make up the time missed either on the makeup day or a different day during the week when another group is doing their rotations. Also one girl missed 3 clinicals (out of only 7 this semester) and was unable to makeup one of them, so she was able to do a book assignment to make it up.
Also if tardies were a bad thing, how about being 15-45 minutes late EVERY clinical/class ect? There is one girl in our class that is late every time, and yes, they count it in your end of day eval. But with clinicals being pass or fail, it doesn't even effect her in the long run.
And yes, this person has rubbed us all a little wrong when we have to start lecture/lab ect over again when she shows up 'cause she missed something. Or hold the entire class until she shows up. Doesn't seem to bother the instructors though.
Because "Adults" need to be at work on time and reliable.
And because tardiness/abscences are incredibly rude and disrespectful of other peoples' time and obligations. They also endanger patient care. If you cannot get to Nursing class on time, what will you be like when you graduate.
It is truly sad that these "childish" rules are required to make Adults do the right thing, but unfortunately they are.
Excellent point. The instructors were just talking about this the other day.
The reason a lot of schools are so tough is that they are sick and tired of hearing the excuses. It's exhausting for them.
The abusers far outweigh the people who have legitimate excuses, so they crack down on everyone so they don't have to waste their time dealing with it.
To me, nursing school is like a job. Wouldn't these people be fired if they didn't show up for their jobs on time?
That's how the real world works. Nursing school should be the same, especially for clinicals.
There is no excuse for being late. Being late shouldn't mean that you are sent home. I had one classmate who was late for clinical three days in a row. We aren't talking a few minutes (and you shouldn't be a few minutes late either), once she was an hour and a half late. From the time she arrived to the end of the day, the instructor was looking over her shoulder and attached to her hip. Until she got there, the instructor was cranky as you know what and rode our butts because SHE was late. The instructor was mad because this made her look unprofessional in that her student wasn't taking things seriously enough to show up on time. Why it took three times for her to learn, I don't know. I would have learned after the first time. It wasn't just the instructor who was mad at her... because of what we had to deal with until she arrived, the rest of us gave her the cold shoulder that day and so did all of the RN's. Not impressive to anyone. When she is a practicing RN, nevermind what administration will do for being late, the other nurses aren't going to forget it. I would not want to be on the bad side of all of my co-workers.
luv2yoga
238 Posts
Why on earth do some of these schools treat you like children? I can't believe that if you're one minute late, they dismiss you for that day. That's not reasonable. Seems a lot of variation here - some places seem more flexible than others.
M.