Don't know that 1oz=30cc/mls....and it's the Last Trimester?

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Specializes in SN, LTC, REHAB, HH.

How could you pass fundamentals, med/surg etc.. and not know how to calculate a patients intake? one of my classmates and i were discussing intake for one of her patients when she asked me "how do you do that"? well, i was thinking she was talking about the intake/output sheet on where to put in the numbers. i showed her where to put it in. she says no how do you figure how much they drink with their meals? i'm like huh? let me add, this conversation was taking place in front of one of the CNA's at our clinical site. i told her how many ounces the juice glasses were and you multiply that by 30mls. she's listening and says "did we go over that"? i said YEAH and were where you during the first trimester? omg.... this girl is sooo not ready to be a nurse. i found out from her that she's barely passing exams and she's made it this far because of the low passing score, only a 74% needed to pass a course, and projects thats worth almost more than the exams. i've also noticed that she askes questions that we should automatically know like what does aspirin do? duh everything under the sun it's a analgesic, anticoagulant, antipyretic. she's always asking what is this or what is that, did we learn this? i understand that it's impossible to know everything about nursing but by this time you should know enough that you are confident and a safe nursing student. i am so mad that my school is letting her and others pass by a tiny % because they've done those stupid projects.

how is it in your lpn or rn program do you all have a ton of worthless projects to do?

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WE do have several I know that they haven't factored those in yet and I have overheard several students banking on those getting them through the program! Remember that these same people need to pass a standardized test, granted with a special needs child there have been a few nurses we have dealt with and we all look at each other after he/she leaves the room and comment on their horrible nursing skills. I would hope that clinical and classroom instructors do look at some of this stuff and factor that in as well somewhere. I would not worry about others for now just keep your head on straight and get yourself through this program.

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Hey...well we are just finishing up our 1st term for the LPN program. Our school makes it where you have to have an average of 80% or higher to continue-and some of the students had to pull off getting a high grade on the final. I understand your attitude towards those students completely; here I am taking care of my house and kids and busting my ass off (my overall grade was 92%) and they went out all the time came into class hungover and barely studied. The way I look at it is if the school isnt filtering them out than you know boards will-there is no way in hell the students I am thinking about will ever be able to pass!! Ohhh and the oz to ccs yeah we learned that 3 weeks into funds 1. Thats a joke that ppl are in the clinical setting and that ill prepared!

Well take care

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Specializes in SN, LTC, REHAB, HH.
WE do have several I know that they haven't factored those in yet and I have overheard several students banking on those getting them through the program! Remember that these same people need to pass a standardized test, granted with a special needs child there have been a few nurses we have dealt with and we all look at each other after he/she leaves the room and comment on their horrible nursing skills. I would hope that clinical and classroom instructors do look at some of this stuff and factor that in as well somewhere. I would not worry about others for now just keep your head on straight and get yourself through this program.

You're exactly right. the hesi or nclex will kick their butts and there will be no one standing there for her to ask questions.

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Specializes in SN, LTC, REHAB, HH.
Hey...well we are just finishing up our 1st term for the LPN program. Our school makes it where you have to have an average of 80% or higher to continue-and some of the students had to pull off getting a high grade on the final. I understand your attitude towards those students completely; here I am taking care of my house and kids and busting my ass off (my overall grade was 92%) and they went out all the time came into class hungover and barely studied. The way I look at it is if the school isnt filtering them out than you know boards will-there is no way in hell the students I am thinking about will ever be able to pass!! Ohhh and the oz to ccs yeah we learned that 3 weeks into funds 1. Thats a joke that ppl are in the clinical setting and that ill prepared!

Well take care

Nursing school is hard. i don't feel sorry for those who don't take it seriously and end up failing. i just can't believe this girl does not know certain things about common drugs or basic patient care. she doesn't hide her lack of knowledge either in post conference which is a joke. these instructors know some of their students are below average and unsafe and they do nothing. i say raise the pass % and not figure in anything extra like projects until that average is achieved.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

We have had 2 projects, one a group cultural project that was worth 30 points that was really interesting. My group choose incarceration and I shadowed a nurse at the jail for a night for the project!

Anyway then we had a library assignment worth 8 points. I think it was pretty much just to show we can look up nursing journals properly and cite them properly.

Anyway these two things are worth 38 points and only worth 10% of our grade. They don't count towards our passing grade though. We have to have a minimum of 77% on our exams to pass the course, if we reach that than we can have the points from those 2 projects. This is only for Fundamentals our other classes grades are only on exams and clinicals are all pass/fail.

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We have all of our "worthless projects" in the first quarter only, so after this it's all about the testing. The projects are also all in non-clinical classes like genetics, ethics and health promotions which are all only 2-3 credits each. There's no way you could bank on those to pass- maybe to boost your GPA by getting a decent fluff grade, but you still need a minimum of a 77% in all your classes at my school.

I hate when people routinely ask "did we learn this." IME it is almost always the students who chat at the back of the classroom. If you're asking once in a while, hey, everyone misses things. But all the time? And barely squeaking through? Yeah, I don't see her passing NCLEX.

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In our program you have to have an 80% average for your tests before they'll even add in your scores for projects and so on. So if you have a 79% on your tests and your grades you're going to fail even if your scores on your projects would bump you up to an 80%. Makes sense to me. Keeps the people that you're talking about from getting through a semester w/o actually knowing the material.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

OP, I just wanted to thank you for your post. It has made me realize how snarky and bitter I sound when I tear down those in my class who may not be doing as well as I am. I realize you are just venting, however, this girl couldn't be all bad. She obviously had to make good enough grades in pre-reqs to get into your program. And even though she's "barely" passing, she's still passing. Yes, the HESI or NCLEX may eventually prevent her from practicing nursing...or she may pass both, you never know. But anyway, thanks for the enlightenment.

Oh, and my program assigns worthless projects as well. Sometimes they are annoying, other times they are a godsend. A few extra points from a "worthless" project is a good thing if, for example, you weren't able to study well for a test.

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I've had to deal with people like that in past classes. I would suggest to her that she pick up the books a little more often. The ounces - ccs thing was taught in our CNA class and since that's a pre-req to the program, I doubt they will go over that again (although they slightly touched on it in math for clinical calcs). I have a rule for myself...I will help those that want the help and they are doing EVERYTHING they can to help themselves. I will not help those people that rely on other people to pass classes and don't want to help themselves. This person sounds like she doesn't really know what is going on and should have been studying early on. It sounds like she needs a repeat of nursing school. If she hasn't been picked off yet...I'm sure it will only be a matter of time. As for me, I wouldn't help her anymore but to point her back to the chapters that she needs to review.

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Specializes in PICU/Pedi.

We don't really have worthless projects, but ALOT of people at my school are only getting by because of the nullified questions we get on each exam. They complain about their grades, but will admit that they don't study, I know some of them work and have families, so I try no to judge, but I have heard several say that they don't bother working the dosage calculation questions on our exams (we usually have 2-3 of them). That, I just don't get. You're going to have to be able to do them each semester for the math test we have to take before we pass meds. And it's 4-6 points right there that you could add to your grade if you get them right!! People amaze me, too.

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Lot of concern over others grades and skills.

Time will tell if the schools standards are prepping students with the ability to pass the NLCEX.

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