Another one, or two, bite the dust!!!

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 3, 2011

As the another nursing school semester comes to an end, some of us are bearing witness to those peers of ours who may not be moving on in the program, or will have to repeat the semester.
As this saddens me to witness... I want to take a minute to communicate to those who are not moving on due to performance issues. As harsh as this may sound... those of you are not going forward are doing so justifiably. These programs are easy to fail, yet hard to succeed in beyond mediocrity. If you have failed, and yes below 75% is failing, then you SHOULD NOT be moving forward and the hospital floor and those potential patients you would be exposed to are much safer due to these standards.
Your peers "know" that you struggle with concepts and they too are concerned with patient safety when it comes to your caring for patients. It takes dedication and time to "comprehend" vs. "staring at" the literature to GET this material. After soliciting information from "my peers", as well considering how much time I study to achieve comprehension as well as reflective high scores, a 40hr/wk study schedule is a reasonable expectation for understanding the material.

While I agree with you that those who fail shouldn't be allowed to move forward in the program, this post comes off as rather condescending and chastising. How do you know that those who are failing didn't take the time to study or learn the concepts? How do you know that they "stared" at the material instead of trying to comprehend it?

There is no need to make a post for self-praise and talking down at others. You don't know their situation, I'm sure, just like they do not know yours. Nursing school is difficult and not everyone can be as smart and as perfect as you. :rolleyes:

P.S. This is coming from someone who is NOT failing out of Nursing school.

TC3200 · Dec 3, 2011

That original post sounded like someone has been drinking the Nursing Instructor Kool-Aid by the pitcherful, lol. There are many of reasons that students fail nursing school. I rather think that it's going to become more common, because today's students are nontraditional and career-changers; are parents and working students. All nursing schools have added to the curriculum over the years and have not taken much of anything out, but the programs were not lengthened. I think one of the keys to success in nursing school is to shop the schools until you find a program that works well for you. Although the knowledge and the finish line (pass the NCLEX-RN) may be the same, there are many different ways to organize a program and teach it. And some programs do that very efficiently and some, unfortunately, seem to obfuscate and uniquely arrange the course material to suit their own purposes.

kaydensmom01 · Dec 3, 2011

I do not understand why you feel the need to come on here and insult people. There is a difference between venting, patting yourself on the back and just plain knocking people down to build yourself up and you are clearly doing the last. I am not failing nursing school either but know plenty that have and I would never make a judgmental statement like you have done. As a nurse you are supposed to be compassionate and open minded and I see none of this in your post. What about those that have families or have had personal traumas, sometimes timing is all wrong. You DO NOT KNOW everything, including what is going on in others' lives.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Dec 3, 2011

Wow. Seriously? Get off your high horse.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Dec 4, 2011

As the another nursing school semester comes to an end, some of us are bearing witness to those peers of ours who may not be moving on in the program, or will have to repeat the semester.
As this saddens me to witness... I want to take a minute to communicate to those who are not moving on due to performance issues. As harsh as this may sound... those of you are not going forward are doing so justifiably. These programs are easy to fail, yet hard to succeed in beyond mediocrity. If you have failed, and yes below 75% is failing, then you SHOULD NOT be moving forward and the hospital floor and those potential patients you would be exposed to are much safer due to these standards.
Your peers "know" that you struggle with concepts and they too are concerned with patient safety when it comes to your caring for patients. It takes dedication and time to "comprehend" vs. "staring at" the literature to GET this material. After soliciting information from "my peers", as well considering how much time I study to achieve comprehension as well as reflective high scores, a 40hr/wk study schedule is a reasonable expectation for understanding the material.

40 hrs a week studying is reasonable???? HOLY MOLY GUACAMOLE (as my daughter would say). I am so happy I am naturally smart and didn't have to study 40 hrs a week to do well. :|

tsm007 · Dec 4, 2011

Wow, to be completely honest this is the type of attitude that put me off from nursing. Yes, there are some students that just really aren't cut out for nursing, but honestly I would rather have some of the C students who have compassion and caring taking care of me than the A students that have not got the basic fundamentals of the "care" part of nursing. I've seen plenty of struggling students that would make excellent nurses with some tutoring and help with study skills and some A students that honestly have no business being nurses as well. It's more than grades that makes a good nurse. (For the record I am an A student so I do think A students can be great nurses too.)

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 4, 2011

Wow, to be completely honest this is the type of attitude that put me off from nursing. Yes, there are some students that just really aren't cut out for nursing, but honestly I would rather have some of the C students who have compassion and caring taking care of me than the A students that have not got the basic fundamentals of the "care" part of nursing. I've seen plenty of struggling students that would make excellent nurses with some tutoring and help with study skills and some A students that honestly have no business being nurses as well. It's more than grades that makes a good nurse. (For the record I am an A student so I do think A students can be great nurses too.)

This.

As my TA says, grades are not a reflection of who you are or your ability to become a good nurse but how you interacted with the material.

oncology83 · Dec 4, 2011

Wow...you come on this site cutting people down with your "big words".. hahaha.. Sounds very familiar.. I thought I knew everything as well....I graduated with my RN with a 4.0 summa cum laude and class valedictorian, but let me tell you something when you get out into the real world you will quickly come to realize you don't know s**t. Hopefully when you become a nurse you will learn to be HUMBLE... I just pray you don't judge your patients and carry such an attitude when you become a nurse. The most dangerous nurses are those who belive they know everything. Yikes...

x_factor · Dec 4, 2011

I hope the OP does not fall off that high pedestal they're perched on, their inflated ego may get damaged.

allnurses Guide · Dec 4, 2011

As the another nursing school semester comes to an end, some of us are bearing witness to those peers of ours who may not be moving on in the program, or will have to repeat the semester.
As this saddens me to witness... I want to take a minute to communicate to those who are not moving on due to performance issues. As harsh as this may sound... those of you are not going forward are doing so justifiably. These programs are easy to fail, yet hard to succeed in beyond mediocrity. If you have failed, and yes below 75% is failing, then you SHOULD NOT be moving forward and the hospital floor and those potential patients you would be exposed to are much safer due to these standards.
Your peers "know" that you struggle with concepts and they too are concerned with patient safety when it comes to your caring for patients. It takes dedication and time to "comprehend" vs. "staring at" the literature to GET this material. After soliciting information from "my peers", as well considering how much time I study to achieve comprehension as well as reflective high scores, a 40hr/wk study schedule is a reasonable expectation for understanding the material.

So what's your point? Did someone come up to you arguing it is unfair that they failed and thus you feel the need to enlighten this community as a whole or something? What a sad, strange little post you typed out above. Whatever your goal was, I am pretty sure you missed it, as the tone is sanctimonious, self congratulatory, haughty, cold, superior, dare I say vain. There is nothing in your post that would make me feel like taking responsibility for my own actions were I failing (I'm not). It would, however, make me want to put a fork in my eye. Maybe that's your goal?

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Dec 4, 2011

To the OP: I'm finishing my 1st Semester of RN School in a couple weeks. I currently have an A in the class, and did just fine in clinicals. I completely expect to pass, with an A or a B. I can not say the same for a classmate of mine. She is very bright, has a ton of compassion, and great bedside manner and is very skilled in clinicals and yet has little healthcare experience. She was on the cusp of failing (75%) and made the difficult decision to repeat this semester. I have every confidence that she'll do a whole lot better next time around and make a fantastic Nurse. I don't feel that she'd be a danger to anyone. By dropping out and repeating the course, I feel that she is demonstrating exceptional maturity and I completely support her decision and because she'll have had the material before, she'll understand that material far better than even I do.

Now as to the hours required for study, it's all about knowing your individual study skills and what you know already. Some people may take 40 hours per week of study time, some people may need perhaps 10 hours. If someone grasps the material well at 10 hours, it is insanity itself to require that person to study another 30 hours!

Because of my own educational background, I came into the program with a more in-depth education than what some of my instructors currently possess in certain fields of study, and in some ways, no RN will ever possess that level of knowledge without changing careers. This is not to knock my instructors or other Nurses. Nursing Education just doesn't cover the kind of material I'd learned in a very specific, narrow area of medicine.

That knowledge has very much enabled me to know what it is that I don't know already as I progress through the course, therefore it enables me to spend MORE time studying stuff that I don't know and incorporate that into my base of knowledge more easily.

So hop off your high horse before you fall off of it. The attitude you displayed in your original post is not one that will leave you well-regarded by your peers, your instructors, or anyone you meet in clinicals.

Humility is a good thing. My instructors know I have a very deep base of knowledge and yet respect me because I respect that they know things that I don't know and gladly work with them to learn what I need to know. Do I know a LOT? Yes I do. I make no bones about that. I also very clearly desire to learn those things that I don't know, and if I don't know something, I make no bones about it and seek out that knowledge.

ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN · Dec 4, 2011

Hygiene Queen...
Tone and intent seem to be easily lost in e-communication. Cuddleswithpuddles, is an new RN previous to being an LVN for 5 years, who is 25 years of age. Doing the math, one can "reasonably" derive that this member took part in an LVN-to-RN Bridge program, and the response to my original post is a "personal" response, probably relating to some "insecurity". I appreciate your agreeing with the reality check, eventually we all have to be accountable for our performance and actions.
As far as the constructive criticism is concerned, and I only added one aspect of the one-on-one conversation I had with a classmate, please reread the "time requirements" and suggestion. This criticism is brief, and you are correct I could add more to this post, however the intent of the post is to aid those who are struggling, and I know this can be difficult for them, to reassess and focus on what "they" need to change. I just hope that those reading this post are assuming positive intent vs. snide and insensitive ridicule. I offer the suggestions because (1) I understand the frustration, (2) am in the BSN program (3) and have benefitted from being honest with myself throughout the experience thus far and it has succeeded for me. All to often I have seen those that "fail" end up blaming the system, someone else, and are standing isolated, angry and refuse to intervene in their own behaviors, in order to achieve a different result. This rock is a hard one to swallow... I understand.

I have to respectfully disagree with this statement. People often times will use this as an excuse. However, with proper word choices and clear written communication techniques, the integrity of tone and intent can still be maintained in written communication.

While I do agree with the majority of your post, there is one major flaw: Theory based teaching alone will not prepare one to become an excellent practitioner. It is for this reason clinical instruction is included in the curriculum. What good is it to memorize sterile technique if you're unable to insert a Foley catheter without contaminating your sterile field or items? What good is it to memorize that your patient with CHF will be prescribed a Beta Blocker when you don't understand why or perhaps why your patient has recently become non-compliant.

I would MUCH PREFERE a student who is clinically competent over one with a 4.0 GPA and a walking textbook. If you think being a great nurse is one who averages a 90% on NCLEX style questions, you are in for a rude awakening. I have seen the borderline students fail, but who were some of the best clinical students. I have also seen students who are excellent test takers, but who were socially ignorant and lacking common sense.

I say we need to change NCLEX to a more clinical based exam.