FAILED. Now what?

Leopold90 · Sep 16, 2016

Anyyyone?

girodriguez · Sep 16, 2016

I know someone who failed both the LVN and the LVN to RN bridge program offered here at the college (now it's a generic ADN program, no more bridge). You know what happened to her? She got back up and tried again. She's now working as a charge nurse at a hospital and working on her MSN. Sometimes **** happens, but you learn from it.

Why don't you want to do an LVN program? The ADN program I'm in right now is competitive admission, mainly because its cheap tuition, a lot of hands on experience, all the instructors have 20+ nursing experience, and well the program only accepts 14 students. I can definitely tell you, having no nursing experience, I had to sell myself on my application and in the interview. I was lucky to be chosen for one of the 14 spots out of over 70 applicants (may not seem like a high number but, but it is for the small town I'm in haha). I feel like the LVNs in my class didn't really have to sell themselves as much, because they had prior nursing experience. The program goes by a point system, and being an LVN gave you a crap load of points right off the back. My point is, you shouldn't completely rule out LVN. Most LVN programs here in TX are 9-12 months, might be different where you're at, but you'll get the experience.

I'm understanding the material so far in my program, don't get me wrong, but the LVNs seem to be flying by it, applying their knowledge to all the material and are doing very well. They're awesome with their AIDET, skills check offs, and patient interaction during clinical.

Who knows, maybe being an LVN will move you to the top of the waiting lists?

NurseEmmy · Sep 16, 2016

Nursing school is tough. It seems like the world dumps on you when you are in school. I have lost 2 people I care about so far this program. I also can't find a job that I enjoy and yet get paid enough to support myself and my family while I am in school. I work a full time job and several PRN jobs to make ends meet. I am in a full time LPN-ADN transition program. I also have 2 children.

My advice is man up. Tell your family what happened. Stop making excuses. I graduated from my PN program in 2006. In every year since then I said that was the year I was going to go back. Guess what. I stopped making excuses and just found a way to make it all work. I take every day as it comes and some days life REALLY SUCKS! I miss sleep. I miss spending time with my kids. I miss ME time. In the end I know that this is a short term pain for a large reward so I get up every day and do it again. I say start working on taking pre-reqs while you wait to get into a nursing program. Don't expect your family to pay. At this point try to save up to help pay for it or plan on taking out as FEW student loans as possible to cover your tuition/books/etc. Take some classes to get that GPA where it should be. If nursing really is your dream you will figure it out.

BrendanO, MSN, RN · Sep 16, 2016

Sorry to hear of the struggles you're going through. My advice would be to hold off going back to school for a while. As a healthcare provider, you should take care of yourself first. Don't start school again with anger, frustration, depression, and guilt hanging over you. Tell your family what happened, and deal with the consequences. Work full time as a CNA and save up as much money as you can. Get yourself in a good position, financially and mentally, and THEN start planning to go back to school. You're only 25; you're YOUNG. You have plenty of time to recover from this.

barcode120x, RN, NP · Sep 16, 2016

A nicer way of saying "man up" is don't give up! Try again! First off I would NOT recommend going back to any for profit school. Like you said, a university may not want you due to your grades but all community colleges will welcome you. Go to your community college nursing counselors and find out if you can retake pre-reqs for much higher grades in order to apply for the nursing program and be at the top of the wait list. If ADN/BSN isn't working out for you, look into LVN/LPN programs and start from there. Once you get through those, go for your ADN as there may be some LVN/LPN-RN bridge programs. You may have to start from scratch but if nursing is for you, then do it.

You may qualify with your state board LVN licensure because you were part of the a nursing program. In CA as far as I know, if you completed 1 year of the nursing program you qualify to take the LVN exam.

rivertherapy · Sep 17, 2016

For what its worth, I'm 48 (going on 49) and I just started my first semester of nursing school. I'm in a great ADN program at a Junior college. Economical, and an attenuation program to a state college for BSN.

Take your time. Find other positions like CNA or sitter. Experience goes a long way.

honeyforasalteyfish · Sep 21, 2016

28 still going for nursing.

You got two options

1. Quit

2. Try again

If you do the second identify problems so it doesn't happen again.

Also if your problems are financial a lot of jobs offer tuition reimbursement as a CNA.

They all have different criteria, but if you have to work anyways. You might as well try to get one of those if you can.

I believe some one mentioned experience. Well being an experienced CNA you may find yourself very attractive for a job that still carries benefits like tuition reimbursement.

Exhuasted · Sep 22, 2016

If I were you I would take the opportunity to start over. Especially if you've only invested a year in it. I'm in an ADN program and only about a month and two tests into what should be my last semester, but I'm already pretty sure I'll be repeating it. My program's policy is that you only get to repeat one semester (each semester only counts as one class, so if you fail, you fail the whole semester rather than just one class). I've had some personal issues interfering, but I'm still afraid that even if I retook the semester at a better time for me mentally and emotionally, I may not even pass the second time because the tests are not in line with the classes. BUT, I would still at least try a second time. And I've been heartbroken thinking about not making it, and I've tried to figure out what I would do if I didn't make it the second time, and I decided that I would start over again, from the first semester. But somewhere else. My school has a reputation for having one if the most brutal nursing programs in the state, so if I was going to have to do it all again, I would go somewhere else. I've looked at the next closest school to me and I would only be lacking one prerequisite for their program (and have a whole bunch that I don't need), so that's probably where I would end up. Starting over. So I would be 28 and spent 6 years (including prereqs and a semester of waiting while I apply to the program) on an associate's degree. But I refuse to let all the hard work I've put in be for nothing. I refuse. I've broken my own heart so many times in these past 3 years- sleepless nights before tests, missing time with friends because I'm too busy studying or writing papers, I even had to back out of being a bridesmaid for my oldest friend, I've suffered losses and trudged through anyway when all I wanted to do was give up and stay in bed for a month. Given my most recent loss, it took everything I had to force myself to come back when this semester started. I've been humiliated by instructors, cried in the med room in clinicals when I couldn't overcome obstacles that I felt I should be able to, had to deal with classmates with bad attitudes, gone totally broke because I'm not able to work regularly while I'm in school. It's been horrible. And I can't live with the thought of all of that being for nothing. So I refuse to give up. Even if it does mean starting over.

I hope this helps in some way.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Sep 22, 2016

Hello everyone,
Just joined the community in hopes of finding some support and advice now that I've reached an all time low in my life. (Sorry for typing my life story here, just felt good to get the whole thing out in writing. Skip to the second half for the meat and potatoes lol)
*Big Snip*
If I'm being REALLY honest, I realized my mistake choosing a for profit school pretty quickly. My professors were all super intelligent and sweet but few seemed like they were qualified to actually TEACH. Clinicals were great and i learned so much but my classes were constantly unstructured and confusing. I've also suffered a tragic loss of a family member and had a car accident that resulted in a TBI I had to recover from during the program. I slid by with Bs and Cs the first two semesters. And just found out that I officially failed my third semester, which consisted of med surg and psych nursing, with a 77% and 78% (80% to pass). School policy is 2 fails and you're out.
So here I am. Out. 25 years old. Literally nothing to show for it. Back at square one.
I've been in bed all day having a pity party, kicking myself for not listening to my instincts. I knew this was an environment which I wouldn't thrive in, yet I wanted it to work so badly that I tried to stick it out and wasted a year of my life and an exponential amount of money in the process.
My family is so proud of me for the first time in a while and I'm so ashamed to admit that I've failed like this and wasted all the money they invested in me. Any advice on how to break the news to them?
Also, what the eff do I do now? I've done the appeals and met with the dean at my current school . They have offered me a chance to start over from semester one of the program but I feel like I'll just be repeating the same mistake and wasting more money. I am willing to relocate now but pretty much all the community colleges I've looked at have long waiting lists and what reputable university is going to accept a tech school failure with a 3.4 GPA earned 6 years ago? I DO NOT want to give up but I am so miserable knowing that it will be a minimum of another year before I even get STARTED in another program.
Has anyone had a similar experience? Do you think I should try something completely different and give up on my dreams? I'd rather not do an LPN program but has anyone failed RN and then made that work?
I'm literally looking for anything you guys can offer in terms of advice, stories, ideas, annyything helpful will be so greatly appreciated. Thank you all for taking the time to read!!!

I have been working as an RN for just over a year and a half now. I also failed nursing school and was offered to be rolled back to a previous semester. I also failed in 3rd Semester and was rolled back to 2nd, so I basically repeated a full year (2nd and 3rd) to get me to and through 4th Semester. I went from a so-so student to being an excellent student that did a LOT of peer tutoring and the like because I'd already had the material. Also because I'd already had the material, it gave me a LOT more time to mostly review it and focus on the things I hadn't learned the first time around.

I'm not going to comment much about your choice of a for-profit school. They can be good, if not very good,but they can be quite expensive because you're paying all the tuition costs. Sure you'll likely bear those same costs again but if you've figured out what caused your downfall to failure and have dealt with it, you'll probably be on a path of success the second time around.

Your other option, as you have outlined, is you can wait a year and hopefully get into another program but you'll be starting over from the beginning with that anyway.

It's all up to you and it's your choice.

Cat365 · Sep 22, 2016

A nicer way of saying "man up" is don't give up! Try again!

I liked the "man up" better. It's not as nice, but seems to get to the point quicker. However, I once told my cousins husband that he needed to grow some balls. í ½í¸’ Neither of them took it well.

gypsierose · Sep 22, 2016

First- hug yourself! This too shall pass! There is more than one way to become a nurse. 25 is young enough to recover from almost anything. As the old song says- pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again! This time you will be that much wiser. Hang in there!