Help. Is my outrage justified?

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Is my rage justified. My friend just flunked out of her first semester at Charity with a 76 average. 77 is the cut. The failing question (and I don't know it word for word, but here is the general gist of it): An african woman who lives in Africa has an intestinal bug. She believes that by eating pumpkin seeds, the bug will be eliminated. Is this a : religious belief, a cultural belief, is she correct, and few other choices. My friend answered, a cultural belief. As per the teacher: WRONG. First of all, regardless of the question or answer, how is this question even relevant to Nursing? Upon doing her homework and research, she could prove it very much IS a cultural thing. She appealed the question. The woman who wrote the question refused to budge and the committee sided with her. So boom. My freind is out. Never mind she is an excellent student. I am outraged. 44 people apparently missed that stupid, trick, unfair, irrelevant question. When teachers result to trickery on exams, it is so unfair and the students will never win. What can be done about this? This is a power issue and the teacher is getting off on it. People like that have got to go. I am beginning Charity in January. If I wasn't sufficiently terrified before, I certainly am now. Feedback, please.

One does not fail nursing school by getting ONE question wrong on a test.

Clearly there are other issues with this student that has conveniently not been mentioned.

There are always going to be cryptic questions on exams, however, a strong student does not fail because of this anomaly.

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My friend had the same thing happen to her in 4th semester and like your friend her appeal was denied. My friend however became extremely depressed, stopped speaking to any of her friends in the nursing program and started doing hard core drugs. She died of an overdose 4-5 months later...... I was completely shocked, she had been a bubbly happy person before this happened. You never know when someone might hit their breaking point...

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I just got out of my first semester of nursing school too and 2 of my good friends failed to get the number of points on the final to pass the class. I am very bummed for them and some of the questions were tricky (as they are with EVERY exam) but I thought it was better for them to fail at this point than in 2nd year (ADN program) and have wasted almost 2 years. Next semester is supposed to be the hardest (Med/Surg and OB) and this semester was the easiest (so the instructors told us).

If my friends failed in the easiest part, then they were doomed in the hardest part next semester. I guess that may sound cold but I would be much more sad for them if they had failed at a later point in the program. Just try to think of it from that angle. It is not your battle and I am not sure you want to be a potential target for the instructors. They can make it difficult for you (skill checks, clinical paperwork, ect) if they really want to.

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Specializes in LDRP.

Actually I completely belive that this is relevant to nursing. I think that as nurses we have to be aware of alternative health measures/practices and need to ask about them.

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Is my rage justified. My friend just flunked out of her first semester of Nursing School with a 76 average. 77 is the cut. The failing question (and I don't know it word for word, but here is the general gist of it): An african woman who lives in Africa has an intestinal bug. She believes that by eating pumpkin seeds, the bug will be eliminated. Is this a : religious belief, a cultural belief, is she correct, and few other choices. My friend answered, a cultural belief. As per the teacher: WRONG. First of all, regardless of the question or answer, how is this question even relevant to Nursing? Upon doing her homework and research, my friend could argue it very much IS a cultural thing. She appealed the question. The woman who wrote the question refused to budge and the appeals committee sided with her. So boom. My freind is out. Never mind she is an excellent student. I am outraged. 44 people apparently missed this question. When teachers result to trickery on exams, it is so unfair and the students will never win. What can be done about this? This is, no doubt, a power issue and the teacher is getting off on it. People like that have got to go. BTW, she is a mean and unhappy woman who has been teaching at the school forever. I am beginning in January at the same institution. If I wasn't sufficiently terrified before, I certainly am now. Feedback, please.

You aren't even in the programme yet, but you know that the instructor "is a mean and unhappy woman". THat she "is getting off on it". How is this a "fair and balanced" assessment of a woman you've never dealt with?

Do you believe everything your friend tells you?

There is something missing from your friend's story.

And remember the old saying, three sides to every story: yours (the friend), theirs (staff) and the truth.

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Actually, Fiona, I have had two encounters with this particular instructor. Neither of which were pleasant.

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When teachers result to trickery on exams, it is so unfair and the students will never win. What can be done about this? This is, no doubt, a power issue and the teacher is getting off on it. People like that have got to go. BTW, she is a mean and unhappy woman who has been teaching at the school forever. I am beginning in January at the same institution. If I wasn't sufficiently terrified before, I certainly am now. Feedback, please.

My feelings on it are that you can either expend energy being angry about it or you can let go what you can't control and focus on what you can. I highly recommend you go in to your classes with an open mind, use the resources that are available to you and if they aren't enough, seek out private tutoring and assistance on NCLEX style questions.

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Specializes in Peds Homecare.

Don't know if this is revelant to your rant, or not. When I went to nursing school, 30 years ago, the first 10 weeks of nursing school were hard. I studied the best I could, but at the end of the first 10 weeks, I had a 74.75 average. So I got to stay in the program, because of 1/2 of a point, because if it had been 74.25, I would have been gone. So the next 10 weeks, I regrouped, studied even more, and brought my grades up. I never wanted to be in that position again. Every week I tried even harder. When I graduated, I recieved the most improved student award, with over a 90 average. So what my point is, if you know you are on the edge, you need to go the extra mile, work even harder. I suppose that you could say that one question could have brought me down. We all have teachers/professors that are bad, but if I had failed out, it would have been my fault, no one elses.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Actually, Fiona, I have had two encounters with this particular instructor. Neither of which were pleasant.

But you haven't been with her as a student. So you really don't know what she is like as an instructor.

If you want to be upset because your friend was removed from the nursing program, thats your prerogative. But if you go into this program with a chip on your shoulder toward this instructor, nothing good will come of it.

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I feel very sorry for the student who is caught up in this problem - but more than her problem, I am astonished at the judgement of members without the input of this student. What gives??

The student did not submit the question, the friend did. However, without knowing the EXACT question, there is really no way to judge it (or the answer) on its merits.

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Specializes in ED, MICU/TICU, NICU, PICU, LTAC.

Especially the first year of nursing school, we all had "protests" over questions similar to that one. Some of them, I still feel, were more about word play than relevant nursing information... however, those questions were not the norm. I had a friend who could only miss 21 on the final; she missed 22, and ended up failing the semester by two-tenths of a point. That sucked, of course... but on the other hand, she'd dug herself a hole near the beginning of the semester that she'd never completely managed to pull herself out of. We invited her to study groups, etc, but she didn't want to put in that extra time (I got through nursing school because my husband was deployed, so I had fewer immediate distractions). She owned the fact that she did not fail because of trickery, or an impossible instructor (we had one of those too - she ended up being my absolute favorite clinical instructor). She failed because of her study habits and her priorities (and I'm not trying to imply that this is why your friend failed; some people just struggle with the information overload). She did end up going back the next year, studied her butt off, and by the time the final rolled around she needed only 14 to pass :)

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One question didn't cause your friend to fail.. obviously she had got some others wrong as well that were probably very relevant. It's easy to say, "ONE QUESTION WOULD HAVE MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE" and if it was a 3 question test that determined an entire semester, it would have mattered. I'm bummed for your friend (as I fear things like this happening to me too) but this question was not do or die.

Having said that, I can't imagine any other answer unless you're studying cultures and religion... seems like a silly question.

Im currently in the PN program and part of the nrsg program is studying cultures and religion as we need to be culturally sensitive. We take a few weeks of Culture and Religion in Nrsg Theory however the BN program takes 4 months. So either way whether someone is taking the PN or BN then yes Culture and Religion is part of the Nrsg Program :)

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