Failed by less than a point

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2014

((HUGS)) Welcome!

You grieve...cry, get angry, have a date night with Ben and Jerry...the whole container.

Then you look very hard at what went wrong. What can you do to improve.....then you get up. Brush yourself off and start over.

It is not the obstacles that are tossed our way...it is how we navigate around them that counts.

NuGuyNurse2b · Dec 12, 2014

to add to what Esme said.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Dec 12, 2014

You open a bottle of good wine, spend a night alone crying, pass out, then get up the next day brush yourself off and try again.

I kind of equate it to a break up. I recently broke up with my boyfriend and I was devastated. It was a mutual break up but still devastating to me. I got a bottle of good wine, opened it up, turned off my phone, turned on a good movie, and cried to myself all night. I went through the crying, anger, all of that. I finally fell asleep on the couch and went up to bed in the middle of the night. I woke up the next morning feeling better and more determined to make my life for me better which may or may not include a man. Now I am in the beginning stages of another relationship. Only a couple of dates so far but I am taking it slow again. So I got back up on the horse, so to speak.

You need to do the same thing. Get the anger and sadness out of your system and get up and try again. Remember, your life is not defined by this one failure. You are not nursing school.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2014

I know it's hard at your age, but try to take the long view. In ten years-- hell, five years-- this will be a fading memory. The lesson you take from it (better study habits, more commitment to something that matters, financial responsibility, less reliance on the boyfriend or somebody else's opinion and more confidence in yourself, whatever it is that contributed to your failure this time) will stay with you, if you're smart, but the pain itself will exist in diminished form. Good luck.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Dec 12, 2014

It's completely normal to feel that way, especially when you have failed by such a slim margin. Nursing school is tough and they do not (usually) offer any "instructor's points" to allow students in your situation to pass vs. fail. They just normally don't. Their rules are very strict because they need you to learn to abide by such tough rules because their business is building up safe beginner nurses and there's precious little margin of error. You are either safe or you're not. Those tough rules are designed so that when you're in a tough spot down the career road, you're ready to make that tough decision that is safe and you'll stick by it.

I've failed out of Nursing school. My user name includes "RN" in it now. A good friend of mine also failed out and he's now a working RN. It is possible to recover from a failure. Just know that usually 2 failures in school usually equals completely out.

Work through all that disappointment, sadness, and despair. Then put on your hardhat of tough introspection and figure out what you could have done better or perhaps just simply differently to do better next time. Come up with a viable plan and be able to articulate it to either an exit interview committee or a readmission committee and perhaps you'll be readmitted to the program to repeat the class you just failed. Then constantly refine what you know and how you learn most efficiently and perhaps you'll finish the program a far better student than you were when you started in the first place.

skazen · Dec 12, 2014

Thanks for the kind words and great advice. I'm determined to do this and I know i can be successful next time. Just ugh! !! I hate this :'( I wish I had figured out how to study for the tests earlier in the semester

dorkypanda · Dec 12, 2014

I'm sorry to hear that it happened it you but you need to stay strong. take this as a lesson and stand back up. You're young still, younger than me by a few years. you'll be fine even if you graduate later than others by a bit.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Dec 12, 2014

I have a feeling you have learned a lot about yourself in the past few days. The fact taht you are considering re-entry into the program says you are NOT a quitter. Fight for this. We all had to sacrifice something to get thru school and when you find out what can be secondary to nursing school then you will bolt forward.

Guests · Dec 12, 2014

The good news is that you only barely failed. Therefore, even the most modest improvement should yield success.

My personal experiences with failure have nearly always resulted in dramatic improvement when I finally went after it again.

As an aside, I discourage using food, sweets, or booze as salve for your wounds. Rather, do something healthy or affirming.

kimmy20 · Dec 13, 2014

Sorry to hear that but this could be a great motivation for you. In my first semester of nursing school I BARELY passed my pharmacology class. I think I was literally at the cutoff for a passing grade. I had no idea how I did on my final exam but I was convinced I didn't get a passing grade. During break, I kept checking my email expecting one from my instructor for the class telling me I didn't pass. To my surprise, I never got that email and I passed. If I didn't I would have to retake that class next year and delay graduation. Because of that near traumatic event it made me change completely - my study habits, my outlook, and my motivation. The semesters after I studied so hard for all my classes and started getting all A's. I told myself I would NEVER put myself in that situation ever again. I may not have saw it at the time but that experience was a blessing in disguise. I do know a girl in my class that repeated another year because she failed that class and she felt like that was actually the best thing to happen to her at that time. She had a lot of personal issues going on and she felt that she needed to that to happen so she would be put on a slower track and so she can balance her school work and personal life better. So really...failing doesn't mean you are a failure, it just means you have another opportunity to do it better! You'll have that RN title after your name one day and 21 is still a super young age!

This is my favorite quote and hopefully this can help motivate you as well --

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."