I failed my first check off

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I suck. I failed my bp check off this morning. I had to do apical pulse which I got right twice. I also had to do bp and get that correct twice. The first time I was right on the dot. The second and third I was off. The last time by six! I was being so careful (or so I thought). I swore that the systolic was 140. I listened several times before I told her the number and it was 146. I am a big failure. Lots of other people didn't pass too. So it's not like I am the only one. I have to have madatory reinstruction with an instructor which I am doing Tuesday. Then next tuesday I will attemp to get checked off again. To me, there is quite a difference between doing bp on a person than on a mannequin. The mannequin didn't seem hard or anything, just sounds different. I am seriously stressing out. We can be dismissed from the program if we don't get this. This has really shattered my confidence. What little confidence I had. I feel like crying.

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First, take some deep breaths, cry if you need to and let out that emotion.

I also failed my first check off, it was on medication administration. I won’t go too much into it, but I got severe performance anxiety and made one huge mistake that was an automatic failure. That first day I cried the entire way home, convinced that I was going to fail after all the effort I put into getting into the program. After thinking it over, I decided I wasn’t going to go down without a fight and practiced as much as possible. A week later I passed the redo and now I’m in my third semester, hoping to graduate at the end of the year.

Use every chance you can to practice and prepare for the next check off. That way no matter what the end result is, you’ll be able to say you did your best. Good luck, and tell us how it goes.

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Specializes in Student at deciphering the acronyms..

i feel your pain as well. i too (semi)failed my first check off on vitals. everything was smooth sailing till the bp check. my partner switched arms on me at the last second becuase she didn't want the ace bandages that covered her tattoos on the arm i was used to practicing on to effect my reading for the check off. that... and i was (am) battling a head cold that has my ears plugged up.

the 2nd attempt i made i nailed the bp but the instructor decided to tell me after i was finished to redo it because she couldn't read the guage due to a light glare! :mad: i had to be reassessed that afternoon on a different student/partner and i finally got it (much ear popping was done to prepare).

when i asked my instructor at the end of the day what my score was... she informed me it was a 5/10.

i cried the entire way home. this was my first crack at earning points and it felt like everything that could go wrong did.

there will many more chances to rack up those points, and every failure can be used to your advantage. now you know your weak points. try and use real classmates to practice on as much as possible!

" discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." ~ dale carnegie

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Specializes in Psych.

I'm sorry hon. Our instructor actually told us today that bp's are probably going to be one of the most challenging things that we do this semester and to not feel bad if we don't get through that check-off the first time. Luckily we get to sign off in pairs and demostrate vitals on eachother rather than a mannequin. I imagine that would be very difficult.

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I'm sorry!! I failed my first checkoff of BP, too... and now I'm in my last semester! I think they can be very difficult to hear and it takes alot of practice. The instructor that I did it on the second time had low BP, and when I got 80/60 I just knew I failed again... But, no... I did it, and you will too!

Shoulders back - Chin up! Good luck!

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I am a first semester student too. We have had a lot of mentoring from the fourth semester students, and one thing they continually tell us is 'Failing a scenario (skill check) is NOT a death toll!"

Go to remediation, get mentally determined and you will rock it when you retest. Chin up! You didn't get this far by laying down in despair...don't start now! You can do it!

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Specializes in IMCU.

You don't suck. That bp is surprisingly difficult. I wanted to throw up before my first check off.

Take advantage of the one-on-one instruction time (pretty rare in most nursing schools) and ask all of your questions.

My family runs away when I get out my BP cuff -- they are sick of getting practiced on!

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Not to mention that BPs can vary by even more than 6 points within minutes of each other, BP goes up after several attempts on the same arm. Fact.

I failed HANDWASHING the first time in lab. 30 years later and a Masters in Nursing Ed, I still remember it :lol2:

Doesn't seem to have affected my career though, except to make me read the book a little more carefully ahead of time.

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