Help! School won't release us for NCLEX

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Hi, I'm new here and hoping to get some advice. I'm graduating from my program next week. I have passed all classes and have met all requirements from our syllabus. I passed our exit exam which was the ATI comprehensive predictor with an 82% and a 99% likelihood of passing the NCLEX in the first attempt. I also passed all the ATI proctored assessments with level 2s or 3s (2s were required). I also completed the mandattory 3 day nclex review and have signed up for the hurst review like they have asked...and paid for it personally. Our school's national accreditation was suspended last semester due to low pass rates in previous classes. (still regionally accredited and able to sit for boards) which is why they are putting so many extra requirements on our class. About 2 weeks ago they announced that the school Paid for us to do ati virtual which they said would be individualized based on each of our weak areas and that we were required to do a minimum of 10 hours each week. This was not in the syllabus and will not count for a grade but we were still required. The plans were standard and started at the beginning of the program so most of us emailed our coaches and asked if we could focus on the areas in which we had upcoming tests because we needed to study for THOSE atis and keep up with current class work...that was not an option. I along with most of the class opted to go off the set plan and study what we actually needed. Now the school sent out an announcement that while we will still graduate, the school will not release us to get our GNs or take the NCLEX unless we complete ati virtual. I need to spend this time focusing on my upcoming finals and feel like they have taken all the excitement out of this week that we have worked so hard to get to. My question is, can they do this? Is it legal to withhold our right to take boards when we graduated the program, met all requirements on our syllabus, and passed our exit exams?? I appreciate any advice... I am seriously stressing right now!!

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Check with your state board of nursing. They should have an action plan with the BoN to increase student performance. I know in NJ this type of behavior was recently prohibited by the BoN.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Technically they can do whatever they wish. This may be the conditional part, plan of action with the accrediting board, of regaining accreditation which is why they are paying for it.

As far as legal advice .....we cannot give as per the Terms of Service. Call your BON.

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Ok thank you, I will check. I completely understand not releasing those who are struggling with ati and have not completed this. It's really frustrating for those of us with high scores though. I can promise we didn't get them without devoting at least 10 hours a week to an ati study plan!

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Specializes in Pedi.

Well, you haven't graduated from the program yet and, as far as they're concerned, you haven't completed the requirements of the program because they added another requirement that you did not complete.

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I would do whatever they ask with the hope that at the end of their program you are still allowed to take the boards. It sounds like this school is about to loose all their accreditations and close down which means starting over for their students

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Thanks. School policy states that they can't change the syllabus/Redistribute weights on assignments once they are two weeks into the semester. They said that is why this isn't counted as a grade and will not affect our graduation. The syllabus states that of we do not pass our comprehensive predictor with a 94% likelihood of passing nclex on the 1st attempt. we can graduate if all other requirements are met, but will not be released to take boards until we do remediation and obtain that test score. I made a 99%, would have to get below a 40 on my finals to not pass any classes, and have met all the other requirements. I have actually been working the online ati modules too. I just didn't do them in the order that my coach said because I used them to study for the ATI tests and focused mostly on the areas I needed to pass those, so my coach isn't counting them. I guess I just didn't realize that they could add an assignment this close to graduation that isn't graded, doesn't affect our average, and while they told us they wanted us to spend 10 hours a week on them, didn't mention that this would be the consequence, and then withhold our ability to test....especially for those of us who have spent 10+ hours weekly on ati and have high scores because we didn't do it in the order of our coach's plan. I will do whatever I need to if it comes down to it but would like to at least explain all this.

And also, we lost our national accreditation but are not in immediate danger of having our regional accreditation revoked or our testing privileges with the bon taken away. There are a few more steps/semesters before that is a possibility, but they are trying to get the national accreditation reinstated.

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Also our instructor is meeting with the dean and is backing those of us in my shoes (not the ones who didn't do it but still have low scores) because she was under the impression that we would be given individualized study plans based on our weak areas from previous ati tests. When that wasn't the case a lot of us made our own plan and chose to work on the content we actually needed rather than to follow a generic plan that just starts at the beginning. According to her that is ok, but the Dean says that they have to show that the (apparently) 20k they spent for us to do this wasn't wasted and the fact that we got results with our own plans doesn't do that. I hope that makes more sense as to why i am upset. I feel like this is taking all the excitement out of our upcoming graduation when we should be ecstatic.

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