Nursing Admissions: A Frustrated Student's Manifesto

medicapoetica

When it comes to anything having to do with scholastic endeavors, I have always taken pleasure and excelled. As I would tell my professors when they asked me how I did so well, the realm of academia has always been my happy place; I have some modicum of control when it comes to bringing to fruition desired outcomes (I.e. studying and hard work lead to good grades). Applying to nursing school, however, felt a lot like an exercise in futility. Some might say that I should have taken the rejection letters as a humbling experience; I would have taken the rejection in stride and learned something from it, except for the fact that I have spoken with faculty members from various nursing schools and have witnessed practices that I do not consider ethical at all. Furthermore, speaking with peers, while anecdotal, revealed a lot as well. There is a dark underbelly to the admissions process and I would even hazard to say that applying to medical school would have been a more streamlined, less harrowing experience. What follows is my own personal experience with the admissions process and what has led me to believe that nursing school admissions is murky, clandestine bog of uncertainties and questionable practices.

Prior to applying to nursing school for the first time, I conferred with a member of the college's faculty (who was close friends with someone on the nursing admissions committee), asking if I should try out for sponsorship since my grades were so good. Having insider knowledge, he advised me not to because they preferred to grant sponsorship to hospital employees, applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds, or relatives/favorites. He also mentioned that sponsorship applicants who were rejected were not then put back into the general pool of applicants for nursing school; essentially, the coveted six sponsored seats were chosen and the remainder of sponsorship applications were thrown in the garbage. Nobody knew of this practice, including one of my good friends with a stellar GPA, who had repeatedly applied for sponsorship but had been rejected for the past three years (only when she threatened with a lawsuit was she suddenly accepted). When I finally applied for nursing school in 2015, I heeded the faculty member's advice and would not touch sponsorship with a ten foot pole, even though I had the grades for it.

The following Spring, I received my first rejection letter, which cited that there were far too many qualified applicants, blah, blah, blah. Fine. I was well aware of the fact that hardly anyone I knew was accepted the first time, so I decided to patiently bide my time until the next application period, enrolling in an EMT course in order to have clinical experience. I knew many friends and acquaintances who had gotten in on the second try.

The second time that I applied for nursing school in 2016, I decided to turn in my application in person. The administrators took my new application, but then proclaimed that they could not find my initial application. The dean of the nursing school came forward and asked me what my rejection letter had said and I informed her of its contents. She personally looked me up in their system and found my application under the category of applicants scoring below eligibility requirements (pre-requisite validation cut-score of 75% and/or composite score of 62% on the assessment test). Frowning, I informed her that that simply could not be possible since a counselor had calculated that my GPA placed me at 89%. This was no mistake or error in calculation, as the faculty knows me well (the dean herself knows that I have a bachelors degree from the same school that she attended for her MSN). The dean calculated my percentage herself on the spot and corrected the "error," assuring me that I would get in on the second try. Which brings me to where I am today: holding a letter informing me that I am an alternate so far down on the waiting list that I wasn't even invited to their in-take meeting (code for surprise drug test). Once again, as told by a member of the admissions committee over the phone today, I have to bide my time until the next application period.

Many nursing programs openly state that their programs are impacted and that waiting to get into a program can take as long as three years to finally be accepted. At least such programs are being honest and while I think it somewhat preposterous, I respect their candor. The two schools that I have had dealings with, however, have no such officially impacted statuses, instead opting to artificially impact their programs with, for lack of a better word, shady practices. For example, the Microbiology professor at one school informed me that the nursing department actually frowns on him awarding A's to students, encouraging him to give B's even if the students rightfully earned A's. Why are nursing schools trying to lower students' scores? To stem the flow of applicants? I was under the impression that there was a nursing shortage.

Another equally troubling practice is when nursing schools give deference to applicants based on factors not having to do anything with academics. From whether the applicant was a CNA first to what ethnicity box the applicant places a check mark in, there are numerous unofficial factors that influence admission into a program. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have congratulated friends who were accepted with C averages or had to go through remediation programs but also happened to speak a foreign language predominantly spoken in the state that I live in. While I am happy for my friends, I also think that politics have no place in nursing. If a nursing school wanted for students to be able to speak that foreign language, why wasn't it indicated on the application? I would have gladly learned the language instead of squandering three years of my life waiting to hear if I was accepted into the program.

As much as I love the field of healthcare and very much enjoyed patient interaction during clinicals, I do not love the hoops that nursing schools ask students to jump through. I'm not talking about the prerequisite courses (I actually really liked taking those). I'm talking about the unofficial profiling that admissions committees inevitably take part in when they consider applicants for admission into their program. One faculty member told me that I was not getting in because I already have a bachelors degree in another discipline, stating that I was already equipped to get a job and that the school's vetting process was a form of social justice. What does that have to do with anything? Medical and law schools accept people with diverse majors, so why is nursing school holding my possession of a prior degree against me? Yes, I do have a degree, but I also have $50,000 in student loans that accrue interest on a quarterly basis and my unemployed status only exacerbates the debt.

I don't mean to sound bitter or disgruntled, but I originally decided to pursue nursing for all the right reasons (I like helping humanity, I enjoy interacting with patients, and I like medicine). After being rejected multiple times from nursing school, however, I feel like all my original zeal has been wrung from me and I am now simply left as a husk of regret and frustration. I almost feel like my time would have been better spent pursuing another degree in healthcare and maybe that is something else to consider for the future. My final thought on this matter is that I think many qualified potential future nurses are being sieved out for the wrong reasons and doing so is a disservice to patients. As one patient told me at his bedside when I was completing clinical hours, he preferred a nurse who earned A's in her courses over a nurse with C's and D's. I couldn't agree more.

Nursing Admissions: A Frustrated Student's Manifesto

What should admissions into nursing school be based on?

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