Dosage Calc exam and special accomodations

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · Mar 2, 2015

I would also have this conversation with your academic advisor. It is a responsibility of your IEP to have your accommodations met. If they are not being met, then it is like throwing tuition money into the breeze.

Your academic advisor needs to be your advocate, you need to also be your advocate. And I would also get your parents involved as well. I can guess that they have had a long history in creating your IEP's throughout your schooling thus far, and how to be sure that they are being followed.

Wishing you nothing but the best in your future successes!!

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Mar 2, 2015

Question: How do you intend to be accommodated once you are working on a busy and loud nursing unit?

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Mar 2, 2015

Sorry, don't mean to thread-jack, but I think this is very relevant and may be useful for OP.

I work with newbie first-line clinical managers. Our coursework includes many aspects of HR, including accommodation of physical restrictions, but we don't have any content that addresses learning disabilities. I think that this issue is important from the standpoint of their accountability for the competence of their staffs.

Without denigrating any type of learning disability... Can someone with LD similar to OP's explain how this issue plays out in a real work setting - where making special accommodations could mean that patients receive a lesser standard of care (slower, greater chance of error, etc)? Are there some types of clinical environments that would be better suited than others?

pmabraham, BSN, RN · Mar 4, 2015

The above two posters are asking good questions because once you are on site where there is no control over patient and staff volume, activities, etc., then what? Several of our clinical instructors stated that RN's are expected to be able to do almost all dosage calculation questions without a calculator in almost any environment.

SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP · Mar 5, 2015

I'm going to have to agree with classicdame. How do you expect to function as an RN in the real world where you don't get special accommodations? It's just not realistic or feasible in a fast-paced setting. It is dangerous to your patients if you can't do simple calculations because there are going to be noise & distractions.

WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 5, 2015

I am not going to go in on the OP about transferring her accommodation to the workplace because the other posters have brought up good points.

You should have brought up the failure to meet your accommodation IMMEDIATELY upon the issue materializing. You said you get 2 chances... take the 2nd chance, confirming your accommodations are supplied immediately upon testing, and move on.

rob4546, BSN, MSN · Mar 5, 2015

I think there are valid points being made here, but we might be overlooking an important aspect. In this example the student is learning a skill and being tested upon it, not having to use this in a real world environment. I agree that when this student graduates it might be difficult, but the student must figure out a way to adapt to this.

Once the skill is learned then performing the skill over and over is a different aspect. It is the student's responsibility to manage this skill after it has been learned. I would like to see the OP voice ways she will work to overcome this in the future. I do think steps should have been taken for her to succeed at this point.

That being said, if the OP cannot learn to accomplish this accurately in a real world situation then it is her downfall. This does take practice and it will take a lot of extra work on her part.

In nursing school who took a test (paper or computer) in situations that correlated with real world situations. I am sure we can remember times where there was discussions among rude classmates during testing times that was allowed by instructors, but this shouldn't have happened either.

OP, work to overcome this or you will hurt a patient in the future.

alijo70 · Feb 5, 2019

This is an old post but I feel like I need to reply.

All of you that posted, and never addressed her original concern, should be ashamed. She was looking for advice and got rude and snotty comments instead.

I'm assuming each student out there has taken tests with noises and chattering and it's frustrating.

I would go as far to say that the persons that replied do not have any medical "disabilities" concerns or limitations so their empathy level is lacking. Each and every person has the right to accommodations, that is why they are in place!! If not it is called discrimination! Geez, I hope she eventually found some good support because she sure didn't find it where she thought she would! And should have gotten from fellow nurses. Goes with the reputation that nurse eat their young.