Failed nursing school

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Hello all, I've never posted on here but have been a long time reader.

I failed a class in my third semester of my ADN program. I only missed it by a couple points and I am so disappointed. I plan on reapplying next year. I did well in my previous semesters and even in my other classes this semester, but med surg 1 was tough and I struggled. Anyone else been in my situation? Or anyone have any advice on how to accept this failure and see the bright side? What should I include in my readmission letter? What should I do until I start back next year? TIA

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Specializes in GI Surgery Step-down.

Is your school no allows to fail even one time? I just confused. In my school if you fail two times, you are out of program. But if you fail once, you can register next semester again for same class

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My program allows you to fail two classes before you are out of the program. This is my first so I can reapply next summer and hopefully begin again in the Fall if I get accepted back in.

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You need to take a step back and reflect on your semester that just ended. How can you improve? What did you not do enough? Do you need to change something? what will you do differently the next time you take that same course again? You'll be seeing the material again so you need to figure out how to do better.

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Specializes in GI Surgery Step-down.

My biggest advice for med surge class and others: do a lot of nclex type of questions from books and computer!!! This is the biggest key to bring you success

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I had to go through something very similar... you need to take that figurative minute and figure out why you failed the course. Look at it from all perspectives. Don't blame it on the professor as their job is simply to present information and it's up to you to do the self-learning necessary for you to understand it. The good news is that if you went all the way through the semester, you will have seen all the information and you'll get it all again. They may change book editions on you but the basic information will all be there.

Could you have perhaps learned the material in a more efficient way? Could you have paid more attention to the material? Did you have some kind of difficulty working your way through the exams?

I'm not going to write your admission essay for you... I don't know your exact situation and I wouldn't write it even if I did. What I will say is that they're looking for self-reflection about what caused you to fail the course and a solid, coherent plan for correcting the problem or problems that will lead you to success in passing the course. They'll also expect that you'll also apply the same self-reflective techniques for every class from here on out because, as you have said, you get two failures and after that second one, you're out. You just burned your first "fail" so you'll have to get on it.

One thing to remember is that most likely, you were aware of a problem brewing in that class as you should know your exam scores and probably know the total points for the course. If you kept active track of your points throughout, you probably knew that you were "on the bubble" for failure for a while. I kept track of my points and progress throughout so I knew exactly how many points I needed to earn on any given exam to keep, lose, or raise my grade. Sometimes raising the grade was an impossibility, but maintaining was incredibly easy. In one course, I realized that I could have skipped my final and kept the grade. In another, I only had to show up and turn in a blank answer sheet to pass but I had to earn 50 points on the exam to keep the grade.

Keeping track of this stuff helps you watch trends and try to change something up before the trend traps you into a grade that you don't want. It's a whole lot less stressful knowing you pretty much just have to show up than it is knowing you must get a certain very high score to pass...

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Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.

Failing Med Surg 1 does not make YOU a failure. Some of the best nurses have failed a nursing course in their academic career. One advantage is that you have already been exposed to the content. So, I hope you kept all of your notes and such. Nursing school is difficult because there are a lot of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation questions- the three most complex and at the highest level of cognition according to Bloom's taxonomy.

Practice questions will get you acclimated to NCLEX style questions. After each exam, ask to review it. Understand the rationales to all questions, not just the ones you missed. Your instructor is a resource; be certain to utilize her. Don't forget, your test questions are structured around the nursing model: ADPIE. When you go over a body system, be sure you're able to answer questions using the nursing model. It is much more than simply memorizing information. For example:

Congestive Heart Failure

Assessment- what are some assessment findings for a patient with the above diagnosis

Diagnosis- what are two top nursing diagnosis would you give someone with CHF?

Planning- what goals are you going to set for the patient for the day to improve his/her health?

Implementation: What are some ways in which you will implement your plan?

Evaluation: Did the plan work? Do we need to make changes?

Most textbooks are structured using the nursing process. Be certain to review each nursing process for each topic being studied. Pay particular attention to the boxes, diagrams, and figures.

Good luck to you!

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Thank you all for your advice! I am going to take your words and suggestions and use them. Thanks again!!

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