Half of the class fails

Katie71275 · May 22, 2015

Our first class started with 32 and I believe it was 24 that graduated. Everyone graduated from the last semester. Most of the failures start in the first semester when students realize it isn't for them or they don't grasp the difference of how nursing questions are asked. A good bit of our classmates that failed out though went to a class behind and later graduated.

Red Kryptonite · May 22, 2015

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.

Oh dear Lord....well, at least you live up to your username.

Funny how you said this in another thread...

Cheezwizz, are you that judgmental about your patients? Do you always make grand generalizations like most of the women posting here being obese?

....yet you seem to think that broad, judgemental generalizations about nursing instructors are acceptable.

SubSippi · May 22, 2015

It's pathetic that so many schools have such high failure rates. Nursing school is definitely hard, but it is NOT rocket science...someone with an average intelligence level who works hard should be able to pass.

These schools either have bad teachers, or are letting people in who they know won't be able to pass. Which to me, is essentially the same as stealing their money.

I graduated with about 70 people, and I would say about 85% of my original class. Only two people failed the NCLEX, and they both passed it on the second try. I also didn't hear about anyone being unemployed longer than a few months after we graduated. I went to a very average state school.

I was lucky that the school I wanted to go to had such a great program. I don't know what they do that's different. I wish schools were forced to publish the percentage of students who graduate without failing a class, right along with their NCLEX passage rates.

SubSippi · 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.

I have several friends and family members who are university/community college professors. Believe me, it is in the best interest of a professor to have most of their students pass. It reflects very poorly on them in the eyes of their bosses if they have too many students fail.

In fact, the biggest complaint that I hear is having to make classes too easy, because so many students refuse to do homework and study and are unprepared for tests. Every person I've ever known who teaches, from kindergarten to college, has bent over backwards to help students (who are truly trying to learn) be successful in their class.

aeris99 · May 22, 2015

Most are looking tio fail x number of students.
Never disagree with your instructor.
Some of them are just looking for an excuse to fail a certain number of students.

I'm not even sure how you can come to these conclusions. Saying that instructors set out to fail students? Not much job security there.

Don't disagree with your instructors? Conversing, questioning and sometimes debating information is expected. It's how we learn.

There should be respect and civility but never disagreeing? Not possible.

I can tell you for certain that the students who failed out of the BSN program I am in either did not put the effort into their work and study time or simply were not ready to be in a serious program.

You can not put your social life ahead of school work and expect to pass.

You also will not be passed if you don't have a basic understanding of the content. It's pretty simple.

arichardson321 · May 22, 2015

I am in an awesome program for my LPN where I study aboard. I love this program it is way advanced knowledge of LPN/LVN work. I am in med surg and I Have 2 B's and 2 C's. Intensive program but i will be an awesome nurse.

NuGuyNurse2b · May 22, 2015

These schools either have bad teachers, or are letting people in who they know won't be able to pass. Which to me, is essentially the same as stealing their money.

I agree with you for the most part, that there is a combination of things that contribute to someone failing, but I think it's kind of an unfair assessment to say nursing schools knowingly let people in who would fail, thus stealing their money. Firstly, there isn't a shortage of applicants, I can assure you...so they have their money lined up, schools don't need to steal. When I applied I was informed there were close to 800 people I was competing against. Do I believe it? of course, I took the TEAS, I saw the schedules. Do the math, it makes sense. I don't really have any reason to doubt their number. If the program has X amount of seats to fill, and the program receives a bunch of mediocre students applying who meet the bare minimum requirement (which IMO is unrealistic, but for the sake of argument we'll just say it is), they will accept the best out of that group. It doesn't mean the best of that group are the best students, though. And I know for a fact you can't assess pass/fail from a student's portfolio alone. I aced A&P, Micro, did OK in Chem, well in Bio...looking at me you wouldn't think I would struggle my first semester, but I did. And there were other people like me who did really well. In my cohort one of the classmates didn't make it past the second semester and she already had a Master's degree in science. Likewise there were people who did OK in their pre-reqs and flourished in nursing school.

nmercer1 · 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.

WOW...you really sound as if you have been wronged by your instructors.

Did you fail nursing school?

You really do live up to your tag name. Let me just say..as a former nursing student (LPN, ADN, and BSN) and a current PN instructor, we DO NOT LIVE TO MAKE STUDENTS MISERABLE. It's actually quite the opposite.

Our job as an instructor is to ensure that every graduate leaving our school has had the BEST training they could possibly receive AND that they are COMPETENT to care for patients. What you don't see as a student are the errors that your fellow classmates are making in the clinical setting; this is not your role.

You base your perception of us on the fact that you have befriended this individual (these individuals) when the reality is that you have no idea what they are really capable of. If just being nice was all it took to be a nurse, there would be a lot more nice, incompetent nurses in the world.

I am not saying there aren't instructors who probably do act or feel the way you portray them in your rant but don't make this generalization about all of us. I believe we actually entered this field because we have something to give. We want to give back something that was given to us by an instructor. We want to help produce strong, confident, caring, and again COMPETENT nurses that will take care of us when we need to be cared for.

To answer the original question, students fail because of various reasons. In my experience, I have discovered that many think they are nursing material but when it's time to use critical thinking, they cannot. They believe it's just taking vital signs and documentation-WRONG! Others are convinced by family and friends that they should be a nurse because they will always have a job; then they discover they don't really like nursing and what it entails. Others may have what it takes but they aren't mentally prepared to dedicate enough time to studying and just cannot manage the course load. Everyone's story is different. We absolutely critique ourselves and try to determine what we can change about our teaching.

xianafyre · May 22, 2015

This is exactly my nursing school! The weeding out started even before we were in nursing school. I'm in an BSN program where your first two years are pre-nursing (taking just pre-recs) and the next two years are the actual nursing school spread out over 5 semesters. During anatomy class freshman year, we went from a class of about 300-325 to almost 100. That's over half the class! And now that I'm in nursing school, the weeding is still the same. We started out our first semester of nursing school with about 130-140ish people; we're down to maybe 102 in our third semester. They either didn't progress to the next semester and were "recycled" to the next cohort, or they dropped out all together. Even with this high rate, though, my school still has like a 95-98% pass rate on the NCLEX.

I agree that with some of the programs, bad teaching is to blame. I've experienced the mediocre teachers that would slam you with the ridiculously hard exams. But with my program (as with many, many others), it's more of the weeding-the-weak-out scenario. You'll be surprised at how many people fumble their way into nursing school when they obviously have no business being there. Nurses do waay more than pass drugs (unlike what Grey's Anatomy shows!) Every day that you're a nurse, your job is to help people get better and be at their best physical and mental condition. That's one heck of a calling, so nursing school challenges you and pushes you to your limits to make sure you're up for the challenge and prepared for it. I know I wouldn't want some underqualified airhead caring for my loved one!

However, if you have crummy teachers, please let someone know. Thankfully, people in my class are pretty good about reporting bad teaching styles in our end-of-the-semester surveys. We hear that they quickly shape up their teaching for the next cohort, hehe

Tinman1017 · May 22, 2015

Nursing school is a meat grinder. It's not unusual at all for half a class to fail.

123mnbvcx · May 23, 2015

When I was in school, I felt concerned that I would not pass; however we started with 17 and 17 graduated! I will say there were a lot of immature people who were more concerned with shopping than care plans, and then wanted to blame the teacher for their not passing the nclex... I passes and feel I have very strong nursing skills, but to be honest if knew that the first year would be such a set back in my confidence level due to the lack of acceptance in my first year, I never would have become a nurse! I LOVE the nursing field but there should be a program for new nurses, or warning of the fact that nobody will hire you in your first year. My life has changed drastically, was in customer service 20 years ago making more money and a hell of a lot more secure...... I told myself I would stick it out for 2 years then re evaluate. 3/28 was my 1 year. Thank you for the opportunity to vent, because nobody else in my family understands why I'm going "crazy"

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · May 24, 2015

About half the students not completing the nursing program seems pretty typical. But I believe your question refers to half the students failing one particular class and that is not so typical. If that happens I would say there's some pretty poor teaching in that class.