I have seen it in a lot of posts so I just had to vent a little. Please stop making earning a C for your nursing class the end of world! It's not! Nursing classes are hard and while some may simply excel through them with As (by either brains or hard work...either way, awesome job! ) but there is no shame in simply passing. That will not make you less of a person or less of a nurse. Just realize what you did wrong and move on.
Always remember, there's always that person who failed who would love to be in your shoes. Just press on! We're all in this together!
I am waiting to get into clinicals and just found out that the grading scale is different! I agree that grades don't define a person,but we can be too hard on ourselves sometimes. If you are older in age and have other responsibilities and kids,just being able to keep up with everything and passing is a huge accomplishment!
Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Flight.
sorry but lol @ dropping out of nursing school, for getting a C the first semester.
Nursing School is Damn Hard, and we truly are held at higher standards. We have to remember that there are those who cant even get IN to nursing school much less get 1 C (which in reality is probably an A/B in other programs) on a test.
i hate to be the debbie downer but with the way the current job market is like it DOES matter what your grades are in nursing school. with so many new grads, hospitals are turning to gpa's as one of the criteria for which they give interviews to prospective employees. i have a 3.38 gpa in my masters program for nursing, and my gpa has prevented me from applying to some hospitals. I had one C in nursing school and it really hurt my gpa even though i was mostly a b student (a couple a's). so don't listen to "c's get you degrees" b/c that's an old way of thought. patients may never ask you what grades you got when you're finally working but nursing managers sure will when you interview.
I agree with illsince83. gpa is important. And for somebody else who had asked, the grading scale (for the nursing courses only) at my University is tougher. A 96-100 is an A. A 90 to 95 is an A-. I have always been an A student throughout my pre-req's. I just finished my first semester of nursing courses and I'm now an A- student.
I want to keep my gpa higher because I am going to grad school immediately after I graduate with my BSN and in that case it is important.
Is that an either / or situation? Strive to be good at both.
I remember when I was in school, those who didn't do so hot on the tests would ego defense and posit that they were much better clinicians than us 'bookworms.' Often, however, that was not the case.
Grades matter people! When I graduated in 2009, I got a job right away - was the job market good? Well the recession was in full swing by 2008, and living in Michigan (whose recession with the auto industry began 2 years earlier than the nation), the only way I was able to get a job was because I was selected for an extern program (based on gpa). The floor that hired me after that was my externship floor. GPA does matter, and what else do they have to look at for new grads really?
C's do get degrees, but they also get last pick in the market (that is, unless your family is familiar with someone's boot heels).
I was pretty darn average in nursing school. Im not super proud of that, im sure I could have tried harder utilized more resources ect but I didnt, but I still did OK. Do I feel like my grades affect my current practice? NO! If anything, ive made up for it over the years by reading, learning ect on my own time because I want to. When I was in nursing school, I went in right out of highschool so I think I was just trying to get it over with.
"i saw a couple threads on here recently from posters who were acting like a c was the end of the world, and that they'd never get into grad school."
i had entirely too much fun as an undergraduate, plus i was working three days a week, every week, and every weekend and vacation day. i graduated from my college program with somewhat less than a 3.0 gpa overall, and that was with not having to work at all in my senior year and pulling solid b-to-b+ in everything.
when i wanted to go to grad school seven or eight years later i was, of course, turned down, but i persisted. "you can't tell me i can never go to grad school because i messed around when i was 18, 19." and the admissions dept said, "take a few grad level courses as a nonmatriculated student, take your gres, and ask the magic 8 ball later."
aced the courses, got 99th percentile in the gres, went to the finest nursing grad school in the land. still opens doors for me even though it's been decades. of course, that was when only about 5% of nurses had graduate degrees, and now every tom, dick, and harriet wants one. but still.
Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Flight.
Some people arenot test takers. But clinicians.
its true. ive never had a patient ask me what my gpa was or how i did on tests...same goes for nurse managers. obviously they dont want an idiot, but in reality they need someone who knows their ****, can delegate, think on their toes, prioritze and still have the interpersonal skills to comfort and care about their patient. What i do get asked alot, and i do the same is "how long have you been a nurse"...and its the clinical experience or lack of that puts patient at ease or not...im not a rocket scientist when it comes to my curriculum. i have a 3.0, but in the clinical setting i rock it out because that were it matters. when ur in the thick of it and can do work, not say ..uh uh... hold on let me look it up in my text book.
If we could memorize & regurgitate and apply everything we'd ever learn in school we'd all be very smart rich people, however that isnt the case. accept where you are weak and brush up on it.
sorry for rambling im drinking alot of coffee and typing lol
) but there is no shame in simply passing. That will not make you less of a person or less of a nurse. Just realize what you did wrong and move on.
Eulzk
7 Posts
I am waiting to get into clinicals and just found out that the grading scale is different! I agree that grades don't define a person,but we can be too hard on ourselves sometimes. If you are older in age and have other responsibilities and kids,just being able to keep up with everything and passing is a huge accomplishment!