Grades and jobs

THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN · Oct 2, 2013

I'm confused, is this clinical? Isn't that pass or fail? Grades are not subjective, what kind of school is this?

mrsboots87 · Oct 2, 2013

First of all, your clinical instructor sounds like a jerk and should maybe be reported for having unrealistic expectations. Especially if they havnt given you enough time in OB to really learn. Secondly, if this is the only class or two that you maybe get a B in, you will still have a very high GPA. Especially for nursing school. A lot of students will struggle just to pass and will still find jobs, so the fact that you have all A's right now means you already have a really competitive GPA. Just do your best and don't stress about having the perfect 4.0

nursewr · Oct 2, 2013

I'm confused is this clinical? Isn't that pass or fail? Grades are not subjective, what kind of school is this?[/quote']
Agreed!

dannygirl04 · Oct 3, 2013

It's a 2 year associate degree program at a state technical college. According to what I've been told, it's supposed to one of the best technical colleges in my state. The waiting list to get in for nursing is quite long. But I'm running into some totally unreasonable, unhelpful instructors. I have two clinical classes this semester and two theory classes. My theory classes are ok because I can take my tests and do really well on them. My clinical classes are not. Both instructors expect you to walk onto the hospital floor the first day of class, never having laid a hand on a patient in a clinical class setting and perform like a graduating student or seasoned nurse. If you can't, you may pass, but never get an A. And they do give A, B, C, and failing grades for these classes. Part of the class is writing these competency forms each week (which I spent 7 hours on one last week and got an 81% - 80% is the bare minimum needed to pass and she wrote "very nice first form" on it). This sort of stuff boils my blood because I've never been a "C's get degrees" type of student. I bust my hump and give up my family time to excel.

mrsboots87 · Oct 3, 2013

Look at it this way. You are working your tail off to barely pass. Think of the people not working as hard as you. They are probably failing or will drop. Just keep doing the best you can to pass and when you start next block you may get different clinical instructors who are more helpful.

applesxoranges, BSN, RN · Oct 3, 2013

GPA helps but it is not the end all. The reputation of the college is another factor. What type of experiences you had is another factor like the preceptorship. Another is what reputation you yourself build. If you had clinicals in the hospital and the employer finds out, they may try to see if the floor remembers you. They will also look at your resume and references. What did you do besides nursing school? The interview plays a big part too. What about previous employers? If you worked as a nurse extern, why did your floor not hire you?

Getting a job is like a huge dance from what I am hearing. I am being interviewed for my floor on Friday, but that is because I've worked on there for 1 year.

guest744967 · Oct 3, 2013

Hello! Just graduated ...passed nclex...and will be starting my job soon. Here is my two cents. I was not an above average student in fact I was happy with a C since sometimes I worked fulltime and went to school it was hard. I didn't get the top grades and I felt employers don't really look at this. I was asked what type of grades I made in an interview and I told the truth. What they really admired was my excellence in clinicals. I never had a bad mark in clinicals or competencies. I had proof to show them and they really liked seeing that. Don't stress out over not gaining the 4.0. I am going to tell you to push harder because it'll look great when you decide to go back to school for something higher if you desire. Then that GREAT GPA will be worth it. As far as jobs from what I've seen they want to see how you perform in the real world!

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Oct 3, 2013

Reality check here. If the hospital is including GPA as part of the job application for new grads - it's because this is a factor that will be used to filter out their top picks. Hospitals are deluged with new grad applications - so they are using additional criteria to make the selection process easier.

OB can be a tricky area for clinical rotations because patient census can vary a great deal. If there aren't enough patients, your instructor has to figure out what to do with everyone. If OP feels that the instructor is not making equitable assignments - e.g., making everyone take a turn at the LTC - that issue should be addressed via a private meeting.

Also suggest obtaining clarification about the behavioral expectations for clinicals. Many times, instructors may assume that everyone knows them but this is not the case. There may be a lot of tacit behavioral rules that need to be made explicit. For instance, if students knew that the instructor feels that students should always be visiting with their patient/family instead of 'taking up space' in the nursing station -- this should be made clear.

I have known clinical instructors who had a ton of subjective criteria (that actually had nothing to do with clinical skills) that they used to judge clinical performance - posture, hair style, speech patterns, use of slang, eye contact, 'energy level', etc. - that they considered "professional behavior".

DoGoodThenGo · Oct 15, 2013

I'm just wondering how much grades really matter when it comes time to get a job. The hospital system that I work for now asks on the application what your GPA was. I'm hoping to get hired there as an RN when I'm done. I've always been a 4.0 GPA student until this semester (2nd) when I've run into two instructors who refuse to give an A no matter how well you do, unless you've worked in that particular department (like OB or med/surg) and could practically teach the class yourself. I work in ER so if you put me in the ER I could tell you a lot about it and just take off running with what needed to be done. My OB rotation I'm currently on is 7 weeks long. I've only been on the floor 2 days of the 6 weeks we've been there because my instructor keeps sending me to daycares to see the differences in ages or to nursing homes to see the end of life process. So today she said no one gets an A unless they worked in OB and could teach the class themselves. I'm frustrated because not only have I had hardly any hands experience, but I also lost my 4.0 even though I've written A papers so far and done really well when I was up there. So do grades really matter? Am I pushing myself way harder than necessary just for an A that won't matter later?

Much will depend upon where you start looking for work after graduating and obtaining a license.

Yes, some hospitals set certain grade/GPA criteria for new grads and as another poster eluded to it is part of the screening process. Here is NYU's new grad nurse residency information: Nurse Residency Program for New Graduates

To be fair many nursing programs in the New York City area either flat out require a 3.0 for admission or so many applicants have that or 3.5 and above that anyone with a say 2.5 doesn't stand a snowball in heck of a chance for entry. Many programs here also require 3.0 as the minimum grade in nursing and science classes for retention as well. So taken in whole NYU's standards aren't that unreasonable.