Don't get me wrong. I have not been kicked out, it's just that I'm worried, and I think with good reason. I'm at a school with a horrible atrition rate, somewhere under 1/3 of the people graduate from this school. One clinical instructor bragged to me the she kicked out a third of her class last semester.
As it is a community college, it seems like the only real way they can kick you out of the program is safety related. And boy does it seem like they stretch that to include everything. I have had friends who have gotten kicked out, for what they say, as really bad reasons.
But here is the thing that I really worry about, and the thing that makes me want to transfer ( which means that I'd have to wait at least 6 months to get into another program...jump ship without a life jacket ). When people get kicked out for safety related issues, it seems like no other school will take them. I am not sure about the mechanism of this....does someone tell the BRN? I don't want to risk not being able to become a nurse. What can you tell me about the mechanism of this? Should I transfer?
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
The only safety issues that I have been able to think of that get students kicked out of nursing programs are usually involving making some kind of mistake in the clinical area. Almost all clinical instructors tell their students not to do any procedures or transfer patients unless they have another person from the nursing staff with them, or to just page the instructor before you do anything. The instructor usually wants to be right with the student when they give medications or do any kind of procedures. It is for the safety of the patient and so they can catch a mistake before it happens. So, I would say that if the instructors give you specific instructions of what you can and can't do with your patients, follow their rules. I can remember going to get someone from the nursing staff when one of my patients wanted to get up to the bathroom because we were told not to ambulate any patient by ourself. The patient was miffed, but I figured that if I wasn't there what else would the patient do? (Call for a nurse.)
I think those are probably the kind of safety issues that are getting people kicked out of the nursing program.
don't know how close you are from graduation but i think that you should hang in there..the next school may be worse...if you are meticulous about what you do..you will have to learn to get along with people worse than you instructors when you go to work so just keep your opinions to your self and learn all you can you will be finished before you know it and these people will be left behind
OP, dependent on where you are in your program I would try and transfer out or withdraw. Are you really sure that you're not going to make it? Checked in with your clinical instructor outside of clinical time re where you stand? sometimes they're less monstrous off the floor.
What is it with the high attrition rates at some schools?? sure nursing school is tough but I can't think of a reasonable explanation for a 60% attrition rate. Seems more like: poor student selection process, poor faculty quality and a holdover culture of "hazing". Who gains from it? Are those who survive really better nurses or just better at surviving nursing school? What a colossal waste of time and resources!
The CC I go to has a fairly rigorous selection process, graduates about 85-90 % and consistently has the top placed Nclex pass rate in the state AND a good rep among local facilities. I can be done here why not anywhere?
Your going to most likely have these same problems at any school you attend. There are ALOT of students who do not make it thru nursing school. Lets face it, it's just plain hard, and its going to be even tougher in the real world. Why do you think instructors are so hard on us, I believe that they are doing us a favor. Nursing is a career that you can't afford to make mistakes in. Be glad that your school does weed out those that are not cut out for nursing. Think about it, would you want a nurse taking care of you or one of your family members that went to a school that wasn't extreemly strict and hard to get through. I wouldn't, I'd rather see someone get kicked out if they are not cut out for the program then to see them slide through and end up making an error, possibly causing a patient harm. We are going to be dealing with peoples lives, school's should kick those out who are not cutting it. There are enough bad nurses already out there. We don't need bad nurses, we need nurses that know what they are doing and take the job of caring for peoples lives very seriously!!
If you do what is expected of you then you shouldn't worry about being kicked out. Stay focused and give yourself enough credit to know that YOU will make it through school no matter what it takes.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
I believe that they are doing us a favor. Nursing is a career that you can't afford to make mistakes in. Be glad that your school does weed out those that are not cut out for nursing. Think about it, would you want a nurse taking care of you or one of your family members that went to a school that wasn't extreemly strict and hard to get through. I wouldn't, I'd rather see someone get kicked out if they are not cut out for the program then to see them slide through and end up making an error, possibly causing a patient harm. We are going to be dealing with peoples lives, school's should kick those out who are not cutting it. There are enough bad nurses already out there. We don't need bad nurses, we need nurses that know what they are doing and take the job of caring for peoples lives very seriously!!
Very good advice and insight. It made me remember the few times we had new graduate nurses who we knew just weren't going to make it. It was obviously hard for the poor graduate who was being made aware every day at work that they weren't performing well. But, it was just as hard on the staff because after awhile we were doubling checking all their tasks because no one trusted them to be doing things correctly. We would wonder just how the heck these people got through nursing school in the first place. 20-30 years ago these new grads were allowed to practice as RN's while waiting for the state board results (it took 3 months from the test to get board results by snail mail). I recall two grads. One just constantly messed up her IV's (we didn't have pumps on all IVs back then) by either setting drips rate wrong or outright hanging the wrong solutions on the wrong patients. I worked the shift following her and the first thing I started doing was making rounds on her IVs before I even went in to report to get her started on correcting any mistakes I found because after she went home for the day those IV problems then became my IV problems. The other I've mentioned in a previous post. She was observed drawing up the wrong dose of Insulin in a 3cc syringe with a 1 inch needle on it and would have given it if the preceptor hadn't stopped her. And, she had no clue that what she was doing was wrong! She did many other things like that which I cannot remember since it was 15 years ago. But, once a new grad is tagged as not doing well, it puts the rest of the staff on their toes because no one wants to see a patient hurt. That just increases everyone's anxiety and, believe me, when you are working on a busy medical unit there is enough anxiety for everyone just on a daily basis--even for an old-timer like me!
I'd still like to know what evidence there is for assuming that a school that fails 2/3 of it's students is producing a more superior nurse than a school that graduates 90%. The idea that nursing instructors somehow instinctively "know" who should and should not be a nurse and fail students for the good of the profession has been brought up time and again on these boards. Also on these boards there are many counter examples of students who've had to change schools and gone on to success at another school.
It sounds to me more like a rationalization for dismal teaching, poor student selection in the first place and a poor learning environment. Their job is to teach you how to be a nurse not set you up to fail.
I'd still like to know what evidence there is for assuming that a school that fails 2/3 of it's students is producing a more superior nurse than a school that graduates 90%. The idea that nursing instructors somehow instinctively "know" who should and should not be a nurse and fail students for the good of the profession has been brought up time and again on these boards. Also on these boards there are many counter examples of students who've had to change schools and gone on to success at another school.
It sounds to me more like a rationalization for dismal teaching, poor student selection in the first place and a poor learning environment. Their job is to teach you how to be a nurse not set you up to fail.
You have a point here ...
But, the bottom line is: the vast majority of people who fail in nursing school don't do the work, especially the reading that's required. If they did the reading, they'd pass ... even with all of the other BS that goes on. At least that's what I've seen from students in my class.
Well I am not an academic person, going to Uni has been tough experience for me. I just dont get why Bachelor of Nursing is a University type education. All I want to do is care for people. Honestly, I feel frustrated with my nursing school, I dont feel I am getting the best for what Nursing is about. More theory than anything else.
I could have quit months or a year or to ago. I am not doing so well myself, this term for me has been very Sh***y for me. I still stick around because I want to be an RN and I am not going to let these lecturers say Nah, your not good enough here because you are not academic enough. With my thoughts I think Nursing isnt suppose to be an Academic career, its more practical, so give us more practical.
The classes dwindle at my nursing school because for many reasons, to name a few ideas:
1. Get the run around by lecturers and move on
2. go to a different uni as they get more practical
3. dont want to be nurse anymore due to probably the curriculum 'being put off'
I am sticking on till I fulfill my degree theory or not, I am becoming an RN.
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
The only safety issues that I have been able to think of that get students kicked out of nursing programs are usually involving making some kind of mistake in the clinical area. Almost all clinical instructors tell their students not to do any procedures or transfer patients unless they have another person from the nursing staff with them, or to just page the instructor before you do anything. The instructor usually wants to be right with the student when they give medications or do any kind of procedures. It is for the safety of the patient and so they can catch a mistake before it happens. So, I would say that if the instructors give you specific instructions of what you can and can't do with your patients, follow their rules. I can remember going to get someone from the nursing staff when one of my patients wanted to get up to the bathroom because we were told not to ambulate any patient by ourself. The patient was miffed, but I figured that if I wasn't there what else would the patient do? (Call for a nurse.)
I think those are probably the kind of safety issues that are getting people kicked out of the nursing program.