Failing 4th semester....feeling like a failure

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Nov 23, 2011

I can see that you are hurt and really devastated. If nursing is truly your goal I would not give up. Maybe you can start fresh at another school. Take time for yourself and then get back in the game. I hope things get better for you. :hug:

Despareux · Nov 23, 2011

I agree with Nurselovejoy88. Would you be able to return to your school to pick up where you left off--after a breather? I think many schools allow a second chance.

JROregon, ASN, BSN, RN · Nov 23, 2011

I agree with the above posters. Take some time off school. Find a job as an LPN if that is what you want to do. Maybe take some non-nursing classes. There are a lot of schools that can take you in as an LPN as part of their 2nd year class. The test questions should prepare you for the NCLEX as tricky as they seem. Being so close to passing, I would try again after a nice break.

dope a mine · Nov 23, 2011

I can see why you feel so frustrated. But blaming nursing school for everything and saying you wouldn't recommend it to anyone is a bit unfair. Sure its tough and stressful but can be very rewarding in the end for those that make it through.

I think you should take some time off to cool down and reevaluate your goals. If nursing is your passion, you shouldn't give up.

dkmamato3 · Nov 24, 2011

Right now you are in a tough spot but this too will make you stronger. Sometimes life teaches us lessons that we do not want to learn. Nursing school is not trying to trick you, instead it strives to prepare you for a career that is challenging on a daily basis.

Take some time and re-assess your goals. Surely your school have some kind of remediation or a way to go back and retake the failed semester. If being a nurse is your dream then this is just a bump in the road...where there is a will there is a way. You can do it!

Hugs.

Java Mama · Nov 24, 2011

I am in my first semester and know how much work it is. I can't even image how you feel. I have been in school over 4 years and always have in the back of my mind "what if I don't make it?" What about doing the LPN to RN on-line? I thought most schools offer that option. Sorry you are going thru such a hard time.

Wave Watcher · Nov 24, 2011

Hey, there is NO shame in having your LPN license. I know it is not what you were wanting....the ultimate goal was to have your RN. BUT I will tell you.....so many LPN's can run circles around me! They are just amazing!! Hey, as an LPN you actually have doors open to you that RN's really don't such as....clinic nursing, doctor office nursing.....the jobs that are Mon-Fri....weekends off, holidays off. Think of the positive. I'm an RN and I have said many times...if only I had my LPN license I could have had the job at the docs office down the road from me that is open Monday thru Thurs with half day Fridays!

Hang in there sweetie!!!! Take a break and go back and finish if it's your hearts desire. Hugs!

(I repeated 3rd semester nursing...I failed dosage calculations. I had to pass 4 out of 5 tests. I only passed 3. I know how you feel)

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Nov 24, 2011

Nobody is happy when they do not accomplish their goals. And no one but a nurse can understand how difficult the journey is, so I can only imagine how you want to shut yourself off from the world. You don't owe anyone an explanation. But it sounds like you have a lot of resentment: for the school, your classmates and the tricky questions. You are right in that they don't test your knowledge; they test your ability to think and problem solve. It's more than knowing signs and symptoms, it's about knowing what to do. But I'm sure you knew this already.

Regarding your fellow classmates who cheated: there is nothing you can do about it. You can shout it from the rooftops, but unfortunately it's only going to make you look bitter. But don't think for a minute that cheating is the only way to succeed. You're old enough to know what the right thing is, and old enough to know that hard work does pay off in the end. But unfortunately, not everyone succeeds in everything they do. You have your LPN, take advantage of it. Can you not repeat the final semester?

Streamline2010 · Nov 24, 2011

I can see why you feel so frustrated. But blaming nursing school for everything and saying you wouldn't recommend it to anyone is a bit unfair. Sure its tough and stressful but can be very rewarding in the end for those that make it through.
I think you should take some time off to cool down and reevaluate your goals. If nursing is your passion, you shouldn't give up.

That's it: Nursing-educator-think, in a nutshell. Blame the student. Up is down, down is up. "Student, if you are having a miserable time, then the problem must lie with you, not us." Bullhocky.

If that was her experience with it, she is entitled to feel that way. All of these nursing schools seem to have an enormous amount of leeway in how they design a curriculum, how much favoritism they can show individual students, how much "cold shoulder" they show, and lack of help they can give students that they want to fail out, etc. If her experience was humiliating and negative, she has every right to feel the way she does, and counsel others to avoid at least that particular program, if not nursing overall. Nursing school must be the most dysfunctional and unhealthy (physically and mentally) academic curriculum on Planet Earth. I believe even the physician training and the resident hours had to tone it down a little, because patient safety suffered.

Nursing school is brutal, grueling, and nonsensical, to me. Instructors are often impractical in their demands, and the instruction is not always structured for efficient learning. (If it is, you have chosen an excellent program.)

OP, I was actually thrown out with a permanent dismissal, for one late care plan concept map, one trumped-up conduct that was a partial quote of a remark that I made (75% of the class failed two exams in succession, and I said in front of the class that the school should provide a tutor because this performance is the school's fault, and I'm tired of hearing the school berate students and accuse them of laziness), and the third one was a setup: The school moved up the date for a clinical, notified my group via a note in the mailbox, and I was the only group member who didn't get a note in the mailbox. There was no email, no posting the schedule change on the bulletin board, like they have posted ALL other schedule changes and revisions, and predictably, I missed the clinical and also failed to call in my absence. Since it was a note in the mailbox, there is no way for me to prove I didn't get it, but also no way for the school to prove they put it in there. Either way, notifying students via a note in a mailbox and not actually publishing a revised schedule is both amateurish and unprofessional.

I suppose I was supposed to feel, well, humiliated and chagrined, by getting a permanent dismissal and all. Nope. I'd already decided that program was a bad investment of my time and money. And that nursing's culture perhaps didn't fit my idea of pleasant and practical. If I ever to go back to nursing, I just take all of my college transcripts and my PAX and HESI scores and go start over at some other school. I was in a diploma program with a non-standard integrated curriculum based on their facilities, so none of it would be transferable, anyway.

Failing out of nursing school is NOT a rare thing, anymore. I predict that it's actually going to become a more frequent occurrence, because the schools stubbornly refuse to accept that the curriculum must change to fit the changing demographic of the current and future pool of students. More students have to work their way through school. RN programs have had more, and more demanding, content added over the years, but the programs have not been lengthened to accommodate it. Because the admission criteria and the sequencing of content can vary widely, students are always wise to thoroughly investigate the demands of any RN program, and to shop around to find one that plays to their strengths and their available time. Nursing schools are full of students who started one place, and either quit, failed out, or had to drop out for financial or personal reasons. Just repeat it. Anything is easier the second time around.

My ex-school failed out about 8 students in Nursing I, I am sure that they failed 13 in Nursing II (and fired the Director of Nursing right afterward), and had 2 voluntary quits, plus me as the delinquent permanent dismissal after 4th semester.

If you like nursing, go to work as LPN, put in your app at that same school or pick a different one. Of find a LPN-RN bridge, or whatever.

Leesha · Nov 25, 2011

i can see why you feel so frustrated. but blaming nursing school for everything and saying you wouldn't recommend it to anyone is a bit unfair. sure its tough and stressful but can be very rewarding in the end for those that make it through.
i think you should take some time off to cool down and reevaluate your goals. if nursing is your passion, you shouldn't give up.

to dope a mine:

i am in no way blaming nursing school for everything. i am simply stating my experience as i perceive it. everyone will have a different experience and i am simply sharing what mine has been. and based on what i have seen and gone through i absolutely would not recommend going through this program to anyone.

though i appreciate your opinion i would never tell someone that they shouldn't feel a certain way. no one has gone through this experience with me as far as the instructors that i've had and the favoritism that i have seen. therefore no one can judge whether or not i am being reasonable about it.

leesha

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Nov 25, 2011

to dope a mine:
i am in no way blaming nursing school for everything. i am simply stating my experience as i perceive it. everyone will have a different experience and i am simply sharing what mine has been. and based on what i have seen and gone through i absolutely would not recommend going through this program to anyone.
though i appreciate your opinion i would never tell someone that they shouldn't feel a certain way. no one has gone through this experience with me as far as the instructors that i've had and the favoritism that i have seen. therefore no one can judge whether or not i am being reasonable about it.
leesha

she's just trying to give some constructive advice. clearly you are not ready for it.