Half of the class fails

blah_blah_blah · May 21, 2015

my class had close to 300 students, and only 117 made it all the way through.

NuGuyNurse2b · May 21, 2015

That's a huge class. Second semester is the 'weed out' for our program, and it's kind of a tradition, so I can't blame it on the teachers. People fall behind, the material is dense, there's a lot of difficult pathophys that trip people up (for example, when we were learning cardiac meds, the whole renin-aldosterone cycle confused most people), combined with clinical and the care plans that take hours to do, and lastly a passing minimum requirement of anywhere from 75 to 85, depending on your program, will do the trick.

It would take me close to 3 hours to do a care plan after our research day at clinical. Our clinical instructor wanted no stones left unturned. You couldn't just write "monitor electrolytes" - she'd ask you "which ones" "why" "what are the values" - which didn't make any sense of to me because we were given a packet of pre-printed worksheets with the values of the electrolytes there, and whatever lab tests the patient was on, we'd write the lab result in those areas. So if I say I'm monitoring the electrolytes, I'm talking about the ones I filled in...but they didn't see it that way. They wanted everything re-written. But you gotta play by their rules. That's valuable time that could've been used to study.

Then you have people who need to commit to their jobs while balancing school and family.

blah_blah_blah · May 21, 2015

That's a huge class. Second semester is the 'weed out' for our program, and it's kind of a tradition, so I can't blame it on the teachers. People fall behind, the material is dense, there's a lot of difficult pathophys that trip people up (for example, when we were learning cardiac meds, the whole renin-aldosterone cycle confused most people), combined with clinical and the care plans that take hours to do, and lastly a passing minimum requirement of anywhere from 75 to 85, depending on your program, will do the trick.
It would take me close to 3 hours to do a care plan after our research day at clinical. Our clinical instructor wanted no stones left unturned. You couldn't just write "monitor electrolytes" - she'd ask you "which ones" "why" "what are the values" - which didn't make any sense of to me because we were given a packet of pre-printed worksheets with the values of the electrolytes there, and whatever lab tests the patient was on, we'd write the lab result in those areas. So if I say I'm monitoring the electrolytes, I'm talking about the ones I filled in...but they didn't see it that way. They wanted everything re-written. But you gotta play by their rules. That's valuable time that could've been used to study.
Then you have people who need to commit to their jobs while balancing school and family.

Did we go to the same school? haha. My school's weed out semester was 3rd. 3rd was considered the hardest semester at my school. We had cardiac, ortho/neuro and peds rotations that semester. It was also a "tradition" at my school too, our clinical instructors used to tell us to be careful because they were looking for people to weed out.

My school was very demanding when it came to care plans too. By the end of my program, I could crank a 25 page care plan out in 6 hours give or take and that was FAST. Some people took 10+ hours to do one. And if it was marked unsatisfactory, you had to correct it until you got a satisfactory (all care plans had to be marked satisfactory to pass the rotation). Some instructors were so tough that many students had to correct it 2-3 times to get it right.

we also couldn't put things such as "monitor electrolytes". we had to be super specific. meds had to be included too obviously, but we had to include EVERYTHING. the dose, when to administer, drug class, route, pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, side effects, and precautions. GOD FORBID something was in the wrong place too, because that is obviously the end of the world...

all i have to say is thank god for copy and paste.. for standard interventions that is done for every patient or drugs that I included on other care plans I would just copy and paste them from care plan to care plan and it saved a TON of time. I would seriously just open all my saved care plans on my computer and copy and paste what I could haha

alprn1414 · May 21, 2015

my class started with 80 and 32 graduated. out of those 32 only 11 passed their boards on the first try

xoemmylouox, ASN, RN · May 21, 2015

I think when that many students fail there are legit resons. Either the enterance qualifications are too lax, the instructors not doing a good job, or students that are not well prepared for what is to come. For my LPN program we had a very disorganized program that had a few terrible instructors - only about 25% of our class failed out. We had about a 90% NCLEX pass rate if I recall right.

aeris99 · May 21, 2015

The graduating seniors started with 35 and ended with 23.

My class started with 40 and after our first semester, lost 5 who quit or changed majors when they realized they wouldn't pass and another 8 failed pharm/patho (2 of which were passed due to 8 points being added onto the final)

Going into our second semester we have 27 out of the 40 who started.

lardo · May 21, 2015

In my school, Ivy Tech of Richmond Indiana 2011, we had 2 great teachers who would do anything possible to help students succeed, and then we had the rest of the teachers who's only goal was to making nursing school difficult so the students would fail; they did NOT teach. Let me get one point out there, "Reading powerpoints is not teaching". When a student takes the time, money, and effort to go to nursing school, they deserve teaching teachers who want them to succeed and will do anything to help them achieve their goal of becoming a nurse. NURSING SCHOOL, in my opinion has become a big joke.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · May 21, 2015

At the time I went through, I believe the standard for admission to the program was lower than it is now, and yes about half of our class was lost by the second semester. People who had failed out previously (and were joining our class in the third semester) brought our numbers back up; by the end of the third semester (which I believe really was the Make It or Break It semester) we had our numbers drop down again. And yes, there were still fails in the fourth, but those were really the hair-splitting decisions, IMHO, for those the staff felt were simply not ready. Although they had gotten that far (be it in one shot or two), they were not ready to hit the NCLEX or work (in the staff's opinion, of course). It was known to be a hard program, though, and no one from my school ever had issues finding work; we were chosen over other ADNs and frequently over BSNs. Just the nature of the beast; we survived so we were considered to be very good. :)

My class/pinning group were finally numbered about 50 on the stage; there had been about 150 students during my two years. Out of those students, only one did not pass the NCLEX, and one never took it (personal issues), so....98% passing rate for NCLEX for those who did manage to survive the program.

Today, the school uses a more stringent entrance process, so they do lose fewer students; the ones who were going to fail out the first semester (and sometimes the second) I think probably don't get in now. But the numbers do drop in the 3rd semester, and significantly, but not unexpectedly. That's the point when it needs to "all come together" for the student, and if the dots just aren't getting connected....it'll be time to go.

Sorry about your situation, though.

Acefaaace · May 21, 2015

Since California is so saturated and wait lists are like 5 years long. My school is a popular nursing school (Not going to name names) where if you can pass the HESI, and somehow get loans and a cosigner you can get in. If you start from scratch though, it's going to cost over 100k overall. That's why we get a lot of people who easily get in and fail out. I had my classes transfer so I was able to jump into nursing core and skip general ed right away. Nursing core is no joke since it's an accelerated program with 9 week terms, a week off then on to a new term. People started to get weeded out in the 4th term which was intermediate med surg. I actually failed in that term because I didn't take it seriously. I just graduated this past weekend, but it's crazy remembering the nursing core orientation with about 110+ people, then looking back to March when I finished nursing with 56 people.

Bubbly26, BSN, RN · May 22, 2015

We lost more than half of my class this past semester (2nd semester). Out of 100 students, there is only 33 of us moving on in the fall.

NuGuyNurse2b · May 22, 2015

I just graduated this past weekend, but it's crazy remembering the nursing core orientation with about 110+ people, then looking back to March when I finished nursing with 56 people.

Same here, I just graduated from my 2 yr ADN program with 56 or so people, started with a little over 90. It's supposed to cap at 90 but I think some people repeat so they let them back in.

LPN With An Attitude · May 22, 2015

Let's face it. Most nursing instructors are witches with a capital B. They have this mentality that if everyone passes their classes, then their program must be too easy. Most are looking tio fail x number of students. My advice to anyone presently going through nursing school is this. Keep in mind these people have ultimate power over you in that they are gate keepers who have the ability to pass or fail you. Many of them relish in the power trip of this role. Don't do anything to draw their attention, because they gossip about their students to other nursing instructors. It is very unprofessional and unethical, and it scares me to think that some of these people actually had control over their patient's safety and well being at the hospital or nursing home. Never disagree with your instructor. I remember a young gal embarassed her instructor when she pointed out that the instructor told the class something erroneous. Yes, the student got her 10 seconds of fame but they followed her around in the clinicals and gave her a hard time when she did her check offs, stressing her out to the point where she dropped out of the program. Some of them are just looking for an excuse to fail a certain number of students. Don't give them a reason or excuse. If that instructor just reads from the book and bores the daylights out of you, still show up for her class and drink lots of coffee if you think you will fall asleep, because that will draw their attention as well. If that person drives you nuts and you can't stand the site of her, never show it, again because they have the power to pass or fail you. If they set out to chase you out, they will come after you when you are doing your clinical rotations or your skills check offs.