Failed out of nursing school

BrendanO, MSN, RN · Oct 3, 2016

Sorry to hear of your difficulties. Unfortunately, yes, you need to be able to pass the NCLEX to be licensed as a nurse. Pretty much every occupation in healthcare has an exam to become licensed or certified, from CNAs and EMT-Bs all the way up to MDs. You need to be able to demonstrate both

What class(es) are these exams in? Are you going for extra help with the professor? Study groups? How badly are you failing them, just barely (60-70%) or total bombs (

WanderingWilder, ASN · Oct 3, 2016

Have you met with the nursing instructor to go over what you are getting wrong? Is tutoring an option at your school? Most professors have office hours to assist students.

I am extremely depressed. I have never been a good test taker. I have failed both of my exams so far and there is a total of 5. It is going to be hard for me to try to make up the grade. I would needs 80's and 90's on the next three exams and I do not see that happening. I do so well in lab and clinical but cannot pass a test for the life of me I was so excited to be a nurse and this was my dream and now it just feels like its all over and this is not for me just because I can't pass the test? So sad

nursingstudent65 · Oct 4, 2016

The class is fundamentals of nursing. I got a 65 on my first exam and a 60 on my second. I have 4 my exams to go. I have contacted my advisor to go over what I am getting wrong and I've sent 9 emails and she doesn't respond to one. I made an appt to speak with her and she just gives me my test and says "I have a meeting to get to." She is no help. I also have gone to study sessions after class for extra help and its not working. There is no tutoring at my school for nursing classes. I feel like no one cares if you pass/fail your just a number in their books.

BrendanO, MSN, RN · Oct 5, 2016

Why are you talking to your advisor and not your professor?

It's going to be difficult for you to get any support on this board, I think, unless you can provide details of the kinds of questions you're getting wrong. There's no magic wand that anyone can wave to make you pass a test. Unfortunately, passing the didactic portion of nursing school is just as important as clinical skills and labs. Are you looking for help, or are you just complaining?

At some point, yes, you are just a number. There's a limit to the amount of support that any school (even Harvard!) can give to an individual student. No school can guarantee that all students will pass, and it's not their job to do so. It's incumbent upon you to use every support they offer, and all external sources you can find, but if you exhaust them all and still cannot demonstrate adequate understanding of the material on an exam... well, you will fail. What you do at that point is a determining factor in whether you will ever be a nurse. What is your school's tuition refund policy if you were to withdraw from school at this point in the term? Could you find a different institution to attend that might offer you more support for the challenges you face on the didactic portion of the program?

I'm sure there are people on this board who failed out of school on their way to being a practicing RN. Don't give up on a lifelong dream just because you fail one class. Regroup and find a new path forward.

NuGuyNurse2b · Oct 5, 2016

also note that Fundamentals, in general, is the 'easy' nursing course. and if you're not succeeding here, it may spell trouble for later semesters. it's my observation that people who repeated fundamentals had a 50/50 shot of passing med surg, the notorious weed-out second semester course.

there were 2 areas that I struggled with when first starting nursing school - 1) I confused nursing with medical school and 2) I found it easy so I didn't invest much time in it. I would get exam questions wrong because instead of nursing interventions I went straight to medicine or diagnostic tests. I didn't take the role of a nurse to be someone who could do something about a situation and instead relied on medical interventions thinking that was the right approach to nursing. the second point, like I mentioned, was that fundamentals is the freshmen course and I found it a little easy to pass even with my confusion above. That would prove detrimental in med surg where I quickly learned I needed to change my opinion of nursing school.

Kuriin, BSN, RN · Oct 5, 2016

1) You did not fail out of nursing school.

2) Fundamentals is often the "harder" nursing class because you are learning how to take NCLEX (or HESI/ATI) styled questions.

Chin up. Look at your previous exams to see if you can figure out the rationale.

applecrumb21 · Oct 5, 2016

YOU CAN DO IT! DONT GIVE UP! im in the same position right now with PEDS. GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU GOT!!!

elkpark · Oct 5, 2016

Does your college/university have a student services department that offers any workshops or tutoring on test-taking skills? Many do. That might be helpful. Have you checked with any of the proprietary tutoring programs in the community about services they may offer related to test-taking skills? Best wishes!

caliotter3 · Oct 5, 2016

In addition to working on learning the "skills" of test-taking, you should pitch a tent outside of your instructor's door so you are always there during her office hours. The instructor can not ignore you when you are physically present. Ask her to suggest a student to approach for help for when you have questions outside of her office hours..