Dismissed, what now?

NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · May 25, 2020

I don’t know what kind of program/school you were enrolled in, but some technical/vocational schools now offer ASN degrees, allowing you to sit for the NCLEX-RN.

Also, although I can count the times I’ve witnessed this myself and as a bystander, there are those who harbor resentment towards others who, in their minds, accomplished the impossible, and targeted said students needlessly. From where I sit, a degree in physics is very impressive (I wouldn’t even be able to get a degree in basic math or biology?)! Wherever you apply, your transcripts will reflect this. Beware.

I came from humble means (aka “nothing”) and when I entered nursing school in the dark ages, I was paired with ‘the golden child’ for the entire program (LPN). My uniform was crisp and white as snow from head to toe, while my counterpart ALWAYS looked dingy, with shoes that were just destroyed. I exceeded her in appearances and in clinicals, and worked very hard to do so, answering every question so much so that the instructors told me to be quiet. But guess who got the better grades in these areas? Not me. And one of the local colleges would not even let me look at an application for the LPN-RN bridge program even though they still had the 14 empty seats once I completed my online bridge 6 months later.

You never know what someone is holding against you; but you have to work two or three times harder than everyone else because of this. Understand? Sometimes we have to do better than our best.

As for failing at 0.2 points, I can’t fault faculty for that because there has to be a cutoff somewhere, right, or else everyone who showed up to class would pass whether they deserved to or not. If your courses required a C, you need to get the B. If a B is required, you need the A. That’s the only way to eliminate the targets...increasing your wiggle room.

Good luck to you!?

allnurses Guide · May 25, 2020

On 5/25/2020 at 2:02 AM, Forever Curls said:
Thank you very much for your replies! My appeal was denied. I failed by 0.2 points and was dismissed from the school. I don't think it is fair, but it is what it is. I went into that program with a Bachelor's in physics and a 3.7 GPA, but this was harder. I did well on my clinicals, studied very hard and was able to grasp the concepts, but the NCLEX-style questions killed me. Aside from that full-time job, I have a medical condition that flared-up unexpectedly and a death in the family. Things got tricky, but I was still able to focus and prioritize my school work. The person who reviewed my petition at the school said that "lots of people go through that and do OK". I felt like saying "I am not lots of people", but I bit my tongue, thanked them for their help and walked away. I suspect she didn't even read my medical paperwork. Four years, tons of effort and thousands of dollars later, I came out empty. My two options are either start from scratch or give up on nursing altogether.

Best of luck.

allnurses Guide · May 25, 2020

On 5/25/2020 at 2:02 AM, Forever Curls said:
Thank you very much for your replies! My appeal was denied. I failed by 0.2 points and was dismissed from the school. I don't think it is fair, but it is what it is. I went into that program with a Bachelor's in physics and a 3.7 GPA, but this was harder. I did well on my clinicals, studied very hard and was able to grasp the concepts, but the NCLEX-style questions killed me. Aside from that full-time job, I have a medical condition that flared-up unexpectedly and a death in the family. Things got tricky, but I was still able to focus and prioritize my school work. The person who reviewed my petition at the school said that "lots of people go through that and do OK". I felt like saying "I am not lots of people", but I bit my tongue, thanked them for their help and walked away. I suspect she didn't even read my medical paperwork. Four years, tons of effort and thousands of dollars later, I came out empty. My two options are either start from scratch or give up on nursing altogether.

I never said the OP slept too much. I gave an example of how to explain to the people holding your fate in their hands what you plan to DO to be successful. “My job was too hard” is a mitigating factor but it’s not a reason for failure. Neither is that someone died or you got sick. Those are factors that can heavily influence success, yes. But they are not something you have control over.

What we, the administrators and instructors, want to hear is where you will take back your power. Because if you don’t see or recognize that, you are going to fail until you do. It doesn’t mean we are immune to hardship, illness or difficult work environments. It doesn’t mean your loss, your illness or your stress doesn’t matter or that we are cold to it. We too have a hard job. We have to decide who to let in and who to let go. It just means we want to see where you will be able to cause a different outcome. If your job is hard and your parent, child, grandchild, spouse,sibling died, if you are sick we are going to take in that info and want to know what is going to be different if we give you another shot. The sentence can’t end with all the reasons why it didn’t work. It has to continue on to what you are going to do now to make it work despite these things. Quitting the job won’t be enough, because if you aren’t grasping the content, quitting won’t magically change that. You have to have a plan. In the same post that the OP spent time raging at me, she admitted that is exactly what they told her. Lots of people work and don’t fail. If you don’t have a plan, there is no reason to believe a second chance will matter. And as competitive as nursing school is, and as political, even if you do have a plan and can spell that plan out, there isn’t much incentive to grant a second chance. People are beating down the door for that opportunity and not many nursing schools admit or readmit someone who failed out. Good impressions matter. I have no idea if the ugliness in the above post is normal for the OP.

OP, I am a woman who already has what you hope to achieve. I work in the world you were hoping to get a second chance from. I came here on my own time, at no charge, and gave you counsel on how to break it down to your school to get you the best chance of getting what you want. Your school said almost exactly what I said they would. Go back and read again what I wrote. This is why experienced nurses get tired. Nothing I said was insulting. Not one.thing.

Best of luck to all of you. Feel free to DM me with questions.

NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · May 25, 2020

On 5/25/2020 at 10:19 AM, Nurse SMS said:
I never said the OP slept too much. I gave an example of how to explain to the people holding your fate in their hands what you plan to DO to be successful. “My job was too hard” is a mitigating factor but it’s not a reason for failure. Neither is that someone died or you got sick. Those are factors that can heavily influence success, yes. But they are not something you have control over.
What we, the administrators and instructors, want to hear is where you will take back your power. Because if you don’t see or recognize that, you are going to fail until you do. It doesn’t mean we are immune to hardship, illness or difficult work environments. It doesn’t mean your loss, your illness or your stress doesn’t matter or that we are cold to it. We too have a hard job. We have to decide who to let in and who to let go. It just means we want to see where you will be able to cause a different outcome. If your job is hard and your parent, child, grandchild, spouse,sibling died, if you are sick we are going to take in that info and want to know what is going to be different if we give you another shot. The sentence can’t end with all the reasons why it didn’t work. It has to continue on to what you are going to do now to make it work despite these things. Quitting the job won’t be enough, because if you aren’t grasping the content, quitting won’t magically change that. You have to have a plan. In the same post that the OP spent time raging at me, she admitted that is exactly what they told her. Lots of people work and don’t fail. If you don’t have a plan, there is no reason to believe a second chance will matter. And as competitive as nursing school is, and as political, even if you do have a plan and can spell that plan out, there isn’t much incentive to grant a second chance. People are beating down the door for that opportunity and not many nursing schools admit or readmit someone who failed out. Good impressions matter. I have no idea if the ugliness in the above post is normal for the OP.
OP, I am a woman who already has what you hope to achieve. I work in the world you were hoping to get a second chance from. I came here on my own time, at no charge, and gave you counsel on how to break it down to your school to get you the best chance of getting what you want. Your school said almost exactly what I said they would. Go back and read again what I wrote. This is why experienced nurses get tired.
Best of luck to all of you. Feel free to Dm me with questions but I likely won’t be back in this part of Allnurses again.

In my personal life, I’ve had to distance a friend because no matter what I said to him, he completely filtered out pertinent words or phrases that would negate any form of argument at all. The first time, I gave it a ‘slight oversight’ on his part. The second time, I said that maybe I didn’t make myself clear about my recommendation. But the third time, I finally came to the conclusion that for the moment, he wanted to be hurt or upset about what’s going on, and was not going to be happy until he said whatever he was feeling, even though what he heard and what was said were on opposite ends of the spectrum.

When I read your quoted response in the OP’s reply to you, I said that the OP must have missed a word or two in your advice that possibly changed the entire meaning of what you were saying. Or perhaps the OP was so hurt by the denied appeal that she wanted or needed someone to lash out at, and your credentials made you the perfect target(???) as being a representative of those who denied the appeal. Who knows? I definitely didn’t see any ill-assumptions or rude advice here.

Hopefully, the OP will revisit your post..

caliotter3 · May 25, 2020

Whether here or there, pertinent or not pertinent to the subject of this thread, I wanted to relate one example of how I was treated as a student versus how I was subsequently treated as an employee. As I see it, the difference shows that not all faculty or school admins act the same way. I almost was killed on the freeway on the way to clinical one morning. My clinical instructor treated me as if I was the victim of rape being accused of being at fault for being assaulted. She gave me no time to get my bearing, told me to proceed with my day and that basically she was not going to give me any consideration. When something similar happened on the way to work, night shift, one night, the house supervisor told me to go home. I told her that I would stay and work because I was afraid that the person who "attacked" me with his car, might be out there, ready to proceed. A policeman at a later time told me that using his car as a weapon, made the occurrence on the road, "assault with a deadly weapon" and that I was lucky to make to work in one piece. I would have thought that the nursing instructor would have tried to soften things, while the employer would hold my nose to the grindstone in somewhat similar circumstances. Goes to show you how different people handle their power in different manners.

allnurses Guide · May 25, 2020

1 hour ago, caliotter3 said:
Whether here or there, pertinent or not pertinent to the subject of this thread, I wanted to relate one example of how I was treated as a student versus how I was subsequently treated as an employee. As I see it, the difference shows that not all faculty or school admins act the same way. I almost was killed on the freeway on the way to clinical one morning. My clinical instructor treated me as if I was the victim of rape being accused of being at fault for being assaulted. She gave me no time to get my bearing, told me to proceed with my day and that basically she was not going to give me any consideration. When something similar happened on the way to work, night shift, one night, the house supervisor told me to go home. I told her that I would stay and work because I was afraid that the person who "attacked" me with his car, might be out there, ready to proceed. A policeman at a later time told me that using his car as a weapon, made the occurrence on the road, "assault with a deadly weapon" and that I was lucky to make to work in one piece. I would have thought that the nursing instructor would have tried to soften things, while the employer would hold my nose to the grindstone in somewhat similar circumstances. Goes to show you how different people handle their power in different manners.

This is a fair point. Instructors, bosses, students are all just people and subject to the same foibles of the human race as any other. Though your post was not personal to me, I can honestly say I lean hard on the side of being easier rather than tougher due to my own hardships through life. I am not a pushover, but I would have been the instructor not only sending you home, but calling and paying your Uber myself. Shame on that instructor and I am sorry that happened to you.

Yodi2007 · May 26, 2020

It's doable! Even though I never were dismissed from a class, I did have to retake mother/baby for my LPN to RN class. Some schools in joint with others in the area will not allow you to join for a year or two. In Ga most state schools will not take you for two years. They got to Florida or Bama and get in.

Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2020

On 5/12/2020 at 11:13 PM, Forever Curls said:
Thank you! I am disheartened. I love nursing! To make matters worse, my husband remortgaged our home to support me in school and now I can't even go. Thank you for listening!

Aha ! Now we get to the crux of the matter,the infamous husband,is he supportive (I will cook a nice not burnt dinner while you study) or passive- aggressive(I mortgaged this house cause I knew you couldn't do it)

If you really want to try again you must be clear that you will let Nothing stop you.

Many get mad all over again when you out earn them though.

If you are both on same page go for it,best wishes for your success,hope to congratulate you when you graduate.

Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN · Jun 8, 2020

On 5/25/2020 at 4:47 PM, Nurse SMS said:
Goes to show you how different people handle their power in different manners.

I think liability has a say in these matters or better insurance coverage as an employer so they can afford to be nice.Although I do agree that compassion was not a strong point in many an instructors makeup.

Forever Curls · Jun 10, 2020

On 6/8/2020 at 1:29 PM, Leader25 said:
Aha ! Now we get to the crux of the matter,the infamous husband,is he supportive (I will cook a nice not burnt dinner while you study) or passive- aggressive(I mortgaged this house cause I knew you couldn't do it)
If you really want to try again you must be clear that you will let Nothing stop you.
Many get mad all over again when you out earn them though.
If you are both on same page go for it,best wishes for your success,hope to congratulate you when you graduate.

Thank you for your reply. My husband is a saint. He's never asked for anything.

I was accepted at two schools. One of the advisors recommended an ABSN in case I decide to go for NP in the future. 14 months for a decent price. I think she gave me good advice, but I haven't decided yet.