Failed clinical portion of nursing school during COVID

Published

Hello there,

Asking this question for a family member. I used to be a nurse, no longer working as a nurse but is still in health care so I am very unfamiliar with the current process. My family member just found out he failed the clinical portion of nursing school. I remember back then, I really did not learn much from nursing school clinically. I learned a bit from my externship and the majority on the job. With this COVID pandemic, classes including clinical experience are converted to online. How is it possible for the school to fail someone who never sees a patient, receives the 1:1 preceptorship with a nurse, and learns the nursing skill?

TIA for any advice we can appeal to this result.

 

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.
19 minutes ago, candicenguyen said:

I really did not learn much from nursing school clinically. I learned a bit from my externship and the majority on the job.

What is your point? You should petition your state BON to have the clinical portion of nursing school removed since you didn't learn anything during clinicals during nursing school. 

Due to Covid, your family member's school chose an alternative requirement to fulfill the clinical requirement for their class. Your family member failed to satisfactory pass those assignments causing them to fail. If you remove Covid from the equation and your family member was required to go to the hospital for clinicals, but on several occasions slept in and missed clinicals. Do you think that they would deserve to fail the clinical portion of the class?

6
Up Vote Up Vote ×
8 minutes ago, NICU Guy said:

What is your point? You should petition your state BON to have the clinical portion of nursing school removed since you didn't learn anything during clinicals during nursing school. 

Due to Covid, your family member's school chose an alternative requirement to fulfill the clinical requirement for their class. Your family member failed to satisfactory pass those assignments causing them to fail. If you remove Covid from the equation and your family member was required to go to the hospital for clinicals, but on several occasions slept in and missed clinicals. Do you think that they would deserve to fail the clinical portion of the class?

My point is I learned nothing as in person. I can’t imagine anyone will learn much virtually let alone fail it. If a student sleep in, then yes he/she deserves to fail. But this are two different things. Let be honest: in person learning is not the same as virtual especially when you try to learn clinical skill. How do they fail a student based on clinical portion if they never get one especially even as in person, the quality is already questionable?

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

There are many things that are required in nursing school that have no practical use outside of the classroom. They are just hoops that must be jumped through to get the degree. What was required for the clinical portion was required to pass the class. You and the student's opinions of the benefit received from the busywork is irrelevant. It doesn't matter what your personal opinion is, the assignments were required to be completed with a satisfactory grade in order to pass the class. I am sure that the school did not have a contingency plan for alternate assignments for clinicals in case of pandemic. They had to figure it out to satisfy the BON requirements. 

7
Up Vote Up Vote ×

I completed about 80% of my clinical assignments virtually this semester. These assignments included doing some virtual simulations and a heft amount of written papers with a heavy focus on research. I'm going to go ahead and assume the student in question did something similar (either online sims and or written papers). Ignore the fact that these assignments are in place of in-person clinicals. If this was just a regular portion of the class work, a student has no valid excuse not to do well then appeal a failing grade. You get out what you put in. If he was unable to complete the work according to the directions, then his failing grade was inevitable and unappealable. The fact that this was a clinical assignment as opposed to a class assignment is irrelevant.

5
Up Vote Up Vote ×
4 minutes ago, cameron5575 said:

I completed about 80% of my clinical assignments virtually this semester. These assignments included doing some virtual simulations and a heft amount of written papers with a heavy focus on research. I'm going to go ahead and assume the student in question did something similar (either online sims and or written papers). Ignore the fact that these assignments are in place of in-person clinicals. If this was just a regular portion of the class work, a student has no valid excuse not to do well then appeal a failing grade. You get out what you put in. If he was unable to complete the work according to the directions, then his failing grade was inevitable and unappealable. The fact that this was a clinical assignment as opposed to a class assignment is irrelevant.

How is that irrelevant LOL? He passed the exam but failed the "clinical" assignment. These virtual replacements are stupid. IDK how nursing schools continue to train nurses without letting them have real clinical experience...this is just crazy.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Yes, we have to pass both exams and clinical assignments to pass the semester. I'm not sure when you were in nursing school but I assume it's been this way for a while? Passing exams means nothing if you fail other parts of the course.

Assuming the rest of his cohort was able to pass their clinical portion, his failing grade was not the school's fault. I would imagine that he had multiple assignments to complete over the course of the semester meaning multiple opportunities to recieve feedback from teachers and recognize where he was falling short.

Is doing clinicals virtually ideal? Of course not - I hate spending hours on the computer instead of with actual patients. But we're all in the same boat and we're all doing what we need to do to get by and graduate. I'm very sorry that your family member failed the semester. He should use this as an opportunity to reflect on what exactly he struggled with so he can come back stronger next year. However, it really doesn't sound like he has any realistic grounds to appeal.

6
Up Vote Up Vote ×
21 minutes ago, cameron5575 said:

Yes, we have to pass both exams and clinical assignments to pass the semester. I'm not sure when you were in nursing school but I assume it's been this way for a while? Passing exams means nothing if you fail other parts of the course.

Assuming the rest of his cohort was able to pass their clinical portion, his failing grade was not the school's fault. I would imagine that he had multiple assignments to complete over the course of the semester meaning multiple opportunities to recieve feedback from teachers and recognize where he was falling short.

Is doing clinicals virtually ideal? Of course not - I hate spending hours on the computer instead of with actual patients. But we're all in the same boat and we're all doing what we need to do to get by and graduate. I'm very sorry that your family member failed the semester. He should use this as an opportunity to reflect on what exactly he struggled with so he can come back stronger next year. However, it really doesn't sound like he has any realistic grounds to appeal.

I graduated from nursing school in 2011...about to finish medical school. His nursing school pass rate is not that great...so I am pretty sure he is not the only one. Nursing school clinical is very mediocre in my opinion...and I went to a school which pretty much requires 4.0 GPA...so yes, I don't know how a nursing instructor can fail someone with virtual online. Even medical school is not doing something as stupid and non-sense like this.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×

I hear your frustration. But I unfortunately don't think I (or probably anyone on this forum) can offer you the answer you're looking for. As I and a few others have stated, not being happy with the type of assignment does not absolve your responsibility to do the work according to what the teachers have asked. A school has every right to fail a student who does not complete a part of the course (any part of the course) in a satisfactory manner.

If you're looking for advice on how to appeal, I have nothing to offer. Nothing is stopping your family member from trying but odds are he will not be successful. If you are looking for validation that the school was wrong for failing him, again, I can't give you that (especially considering there are no details in your post regarding the specifics of the assignments and what the teachers said he performed poorly on). Sorry for the frustration but I think the best thing to do is to support him and encourage him to get back on his feet and try again next semester if that's what he wants to do.

Take care.

5
Up Vote Up Vote ×
4 minutes ago, cameron5575 said:

I hear your frustration. But I unfortunately don't think I (or probably anyone on this forum) can offer you the answer you're looking for. As I and a few others have stated, not being happy with the type of assignment does not absolve your responsibility to do the work according to what the teachers have asked. A school has every right to fail a student who does not complete a part of the course (any part of the course) in a satisfactory manner.

If you're looking for advice on how to appeal, I have nothing to offer. Nothing is stopping your family member from trying but odds are he will not be successful. If you are looking for validation that the school was wrong for failing him, again, I can't give you that (especially considering there are no details in your post regarding the specifics of the assignments and what the teachers said he performed poorly on). Sorry for the frustration but I think the best thing to do is to support him and encourage him to get back on his feet and try again next semester if that's what he wants to do.

Take care.

You are giving advice under an assumption that he did not do the work and fail LOL.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

We are giving advice according to the information that you have provided.

7
Up Vote Up Vote ×
2 minutes ago, cameron5575 said:

We are giving advice according to the information that you have provided.

I did not say whether he did his assignments or not...and you made the assumptions LOL.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion