Do you know of anyone who has been thrown of of nursing school/program? And why?

Laurenslovely · Aug 6, 2011

One student was asked to leave because she was 'socially inept'. She was brilliant, but just could not function in a clinical environment. It was sad, but absolutely appropriate in my opinion.

Wow... I guess that's happens often because at my friends school there were about 3 older women who were thrown out for not knowing how to handle children (holding the babies they said). In my program I've never heard anything of the sort, but I asked this question because that got me thinking how often does it happen?? I'm kinda scared of not passing because of a silly reason like that. I'm starting clinicals in the fall after a LONG year of being on the wait list and taking basic nursing courses, pathophysiology and pharmacology. Btw... Do you go to school in the bay area (CA)?

allnurses Guide · Aug 6, 2011

I have known a couple of people to fail to make the grade and flunk out. I have yet to see anyone kicked out, even when it seems obvious they probably ought to be.

Admission requirements academically for my program are quite rigorous. We had 48 students when we started and now, headed into our final semester, we still have 48 students now.

prettymica, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN, APRN, NP · Aug 6, 2011

prettymica, how did your class become so small?? Were they not able to Pass the course?
Virgo, student nurse- what is academic UNHONESTY??? You mean dishonesty? Like cheated on tests?
I have only had a few students in my program that were unable to pass the course with the appropriate grade percent.. It was sad, but they were able to re-take it if they could get in.

Yes they were not about to pass and they were not serious about nursing school. Most would party all night or just put off studying to spent the refund check from school. 4 of the 16 that were put out returned before I left and 2 passed the boards.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Aug 6, 2011

"i am in a private school bsn program and i believe the chances are way less likely to be thrown out of here, because we pay so much $$$ on tuition and they profit off us."

ooooh, hot button here. some of you have heard me tell of my students who couldn't maintain a passing grade in classroom nursing unless they could badger faculty into dropping questions from the exams. having dumbed down my exams as far as i felt possible i demurred on their last attempt. i pointed out that exams were built from a bank of standard multiple-choice test questions rated easy, medium, and hard; we built our exams before we wrote our lectures so we were sure to cover everything in the tests; and that my three exams this semester had gone from hard, 40%/medium, 40%/easy 20% to 5%/50%/45%, and they still couldn't pass them. "why should i," said i, "have you pass nursing school and be a nurse and take care of my mother when you don't know what the relationship between digoxin and potassium is, and can't recognize the right answer to the question, 'vial contains 300mg in 5cc, how many cc to give 120mg'?" and the answer was, i kid you not: "we paid a lot of money to go to this school." sorry, you're not gonna take care of anybody if i can help it.

trust me on this one: if this is not one of those online schools that has expensive "financing programs" that sucks you in deeper and deeper and has a pass rate of

and no matter what you think, your tuitions don't even come close to covering the cost of your education. that school gets grants, loans, donations, and many other kinds of support to keep the doors open.

as faculty i have seen students "thrown out of school" for cheating, inappropriate behavior (like uncontrolled weeping in clinical when patients remind them of people they knew/know, or other gross psychiatric problems), stealing, and assault. i have seen a lot of students who left for not meeting minimum academic standards in both nursing and other classwork, inability to communicate in standard english (written/verbal), and missing too many classes/clinicals. seems like this is a pretty universal list.

sandyfeet · Aug 8, 2011

Yes, for being unsafe in clinical and not making the minimum grade for passing. Being unsafe in clinical always was a variation of "I can do this skill without a nurse or instructor present". Scary! :eek:

Pneumothorax, BSN, RN · Aug 8, 2011

i pay a boatload of cash to go to my school (private) & they kick people out left and right.. some bc they cant make the grade in lecture, or in clinical or both or cheating.

because as sad as it is to see someone get kicked out for bad grades theres a line around the block with someone waiting to get ur spot..

Laurenslovely · Aug 8, 2011

No, my school is not online and it has a higher pass rate than NYU (we're in NYC too) on the boards. I do disagree that the tuition does not cover the expenses, but for a nursing degree, I guess it's worth it?! Although, there are many students I see encouraged to go forward with their degree, when I know being a nurse is more than they can handle and that sooner or later they will be dropped from the program. So, in that sense, I do believe that private schools are after your $$$. I work hard to get straight A's. The lowest grade I've recieved in my classes or pre-reqs has been a A-, so I don't give the school any credit for cutting me slack. I just think it's sick that they allow some students take non-clinical nursing classes in the hopes of starting clinical, when they may never start (only to be left with a substantial amount of private school debt).

Laurenslovely · Aug 8, 2011

i pay a boatload of cash to go to my school (private) & they kick people out left and right.. some bc they cant make the grade in lecture, or in clinical or both or cheating.
because as sad as it is to see someone get kicked out for bad grades theres a line around the block with someone waiting to get ur spot..

I know I get so mad because I NEVER have cheated and there are soooo many girls in my school that only passed pharm because they did!! I got an A- in pharm, maybe if I cheated like they did I would have gotten an A! Ya, there are def people ready to take your spot, that's why I think we are so competitive with one another.

OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN · Aug 8, 2011

I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about what the post about tuition may have ment. I took some of my pre-req's at my local cc and thinking their program may be faster I looked into their nursing program. This is what I found out: they start with 220 students and graduate about 50-75, everything is basically set out to make your life hell and why? They can because its cheap and they have a million people lined up to take that spot and gamble on passing their crazy program. Now I switched to a very inexpensive private non-profit university. It's the same price as other local universities in my area and there is a huge difference. They treat their students with respect. classes are smaller, they usually only lose 5-10 students from beginning to end, have a retention officer to help you if you are struggling in a course and turn out great nurse (it has a good reputation.) My point is I do think when you are paying to go to a nice school they don't make the coursework easier but the enviroment is more condusive to learning and thus success.

Laurenslovely · Aug 8, 2011

I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about what the post about tuition may have ment. I took some of my pre-req's at my local cc and thinking their program may be faster I looked into their nursing program. This is what I found out: they start with 220 students and graduate about 50-75, everything is basically set out to make your life hell and why? They can because its cheap and they have a million people lined up to take that spot and gamble on passing their crazy program. Now I switched to a very inexpensive private non-profit university. It's the same price as other local universities in my area and there is a huge difference. They treat their students with respect. classes are smaller, they usually only lose 5-10 students from beginning to end, have a retention officer to help you if you are struggling in a course and turn out great nurse (it has a good reputation.) My point is I do think when you are paying to go to a nice school they don't make the coursework easier but the enviroment is more condusive to learning and thus success.

O-M-G Amen!! I took all my pre reqs at the community college. I transferred to a BSN program, which happened to be private, because I didn't want to be stuck in that same school for the program. I wasn't used to having teachers care for your education-- and you!! I love my school because the teachers do care, my family doesn't even care about my grades like they do. Although I think it's messed up because some students are obviously not capable of nursing school (like one girl who has a serious illness in remission that effects her memory and is hoping to start clinicals soon). She just drops classes before her grade is effected. She is behind and not in my class, but is trying to take all the non clinical classes, such as patho and pharm before starting clinical. Once clinical has begun, its a very structured course. At a private school they aren't harsh like the community college, where you have

absolutely no chance (here in NYC), but they are misleading. The support is definitely worth the $$$ though.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Aug 8, 2011

Ok first off there is a huge difference between being kicked out and failing out. Half my class failed out. No one was thrown out or removed from the program. One should have been after she almost killed her pt twice with ridiculous errors but they just never pulled the trigger on it.

LadyinScrubs, ASN, RN · Aug 9, 2011

more than half of my class was kicked out do to less than minimum needed to past 75%.. we went from 28 to 12 very quickly.

i attended cal state university los angeles, and in the final med surg class of 60 students, it was not uncommon to lose 1/3 of the class (average 20-24 students failed). when a evaluation of this tenured professor was completed, it was discovered that his expectations, teaching and grading his bsn students was at the graduate nursing level. one time we had a joint class with adn students--every one of the adn bridge students failed (making the failure rate even higher that quarter). you can't imagine the uproar from the students and/or their parents. i believe that class ended the association with east los angeles community college. sometimes bad tentured professors can not only affect students but the university.