Failed Nursing School, need advice

EmDash · Sep 28, 2018

Are you not able to retake the course and clinical? Because it would ultimately be faster, cheaper, and better to finish your current program if there is an option to retry the last semester.

Otherwise, it's difficult to hide your previous coursework from another nursing program, especially if you took some of the prereq requirements at that school. Plus, even then, it's not really a good idea to try to hide it. Pretty much every school requires you to disclose all transcripts and may even ask if you've attended another nursing program. If you fail to disclose the information and they find out, you are kicked out of the program.

You can explain what you've learned form the first program and what you are currently doing to solve your issues. See if you have something that demonstrates you won't repeat the same thing in the new program.

As for PCT-type jobs, you should first check to see if having your CNA cert is required or not. Some hospitals don't care, but others require it. Others will also pretty much require a certain amount of CNA experience. Hospitals out here generally require like 1 year experience. You could start out working at a nursing home, as they are generally always needing people. (Also, I probably wouldn't spend too much time emphasizing your head to toe assessment abilities. They may help you understand what to bring to the nurse's attention, but ultimately, nurses must do the assessments because they are able to make nursing judgements. PCTs/CNAs aren't really tasked with things that require those type of judgements.)

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Oct 1, 2018

I have failed out of nursing school in my last semester. I received a clinical failure. I'm not going to go into a long story about everything that went wrong. I just have some questions and would like advice.
Has anyone ever changed programs? I am going to talk to other colleges in the area and learn about BSN programs. I wouldn't mind starting over and paying more if it made me a better nurse in the long run. What could I tell the new college? How can I hide my failure from them or should I explain what I learned from it?
How do I get a job as a nurses aide or patient tech? I have ZERO paid work experience in healthcare. I volunteered with patient transport at an ER for a few months. I don't know how to show a hospital that I have 3 semesters of clinical patient care and nursing assessment experience and would be a good fit for them. I would be able to clean patients AND do head to toe assessments. My resume says I worked in a call center and have done retail. My goal was to just get an RN license and get a job from that. Now I have to take a detour but I'm not sure how to make it work.

If you can get back into a nursing program, that's all it may require in order to get a job as a patient care tech. Or take a class to become certified as a CNA. BTW, making comprehensive assessments are out of the scope of a CNA, though certainly practicing this mentally will be good for your eventual career as a nurse.

But don't ever lie to a university or potential employer about your past education. People who start off their career lying generally don't stop later.