I failed out of Nursing School... Appealed and WON!!

I am currently a Senior Nursing Student, I have read countless blogs, threads, and websites and have yet to find a story about a successful nursing school appeal. My nursing school journey is unique & I hope that it inspires those who have lost hope to never give up.... I failed out & appealed my grade. It is possible to win a nursing school appeal... I know this because I won MINE!!!

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I failed out of Nursing School... Appealed and WON!!

I didn't choose nursing it chose me. I firmly believe that God called upon me to become a nurse. I know this because he planted a seed in me long before I knew it myself. I've had quite the journey in nursing school, and I attribute my success to persevering and never giving up. Florence Nightingale once said, "I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an accuse". This quote really means a lot to me and is what inspired me to keep going even when the odds were against me.

I was diagnosed with ADHD as a young child. I have always struggled, but I have learned to manage my disability, and I continue to strive to be an exceptional student. It is because of my learning disability, I have to make a daily effort to stay on top of my studies, and overcome the adversity of my circumstances.

In nursing school you're only able to retake one nursing course, which I already did a year prior. However, last fall my worst nightmare became a reality, I failed a second course by less than half a point, 0.43 to be exact. I was completely devastated but I wasn't going to give up that easy. If a nursing student fails a class regardless of whether it's their first or second failure, and if that student has reason to believe that the grade does not reflect his or her academic ability then they can appeal the grade with the dean of nursing. And that's exactly what I did, as a Bachelorette nursing student we have been taught that the best practice is evidenced based. After all that is what separates a BSN degree versus an ADN degree, we are trained to use our critical thinking knowledge and research the best clinical evidenced based practice.

I researched nursing school appeals to see if there were ever any students to fail out but were able to win an appeal. To my dismay I did not find any successful nursing school appeals even ones that went to court. That was a little discouraging but I knew I was born to be a nurse and that even if my appeal was not successful at least I gave it my all. Any nursing student can attest to the fact that it is infuriating when you get a test question and every answer available is correct. However, there is always one that is "most correct". Those pesky priority questions and select all that apply will always be the death of me. In this particular course there were three exam questions that I knew were reasonably debatable and I was going to find the evidence.

I wrote my nursing appeal letter and made a meeting with the dean. I found evidence base practice in my text-books, reading material from other classes and even in an NCLEX book that my school endorsed. All I needed were two points added back in order to be successful, I knew I had to appeal this because I was meant for greatness. After a long few weeks, I finally received the letter that would determine my future career as a nurse. I opened the letter and it said that my appeal was successful. That I was given back two out three of the test questions that were contested. I was in tears because I had never fought so hard for something in my entire life. But it was worth it and the only explanation that I can come up with is that this experience was a test. God knew I was supposed to be a nurse but how far was I willing to go? Also, one day I will have patients with way bigger fears and battles than I have ever had to endure. He wanted to know that I was willing to stand up for what I believe in and that I would speak even if my voice shook.

I graduate FINALLY in August this year and I plan to attend graduate school to pursue a masters in nursing. I would love to become a nurse practitioner but I think after this experience I would love to pursue a degree in nursing education. Nursing school is hard, I especially know this and hopefully my story will inspire others to never give up. I couldn't have done it with out God because he is the one who called me to be a nurse. I could have thrown my hands up and quit but I didn't. I inspire to always attribute my success to never giving or taking an accuse, like Florence Nightingale. Little did she know that her one observation of how important hand washing was between patients would forever change healthcare. And how it gave nurses and future nurses like me the hope and courage to make a difference.

-Hope this inspires others to keep going & believe in the impossible, JB ?

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ToBeBornANurseJB

About ToBeBornANurseJB

Nursing Student; Travel Enthusiast, ESFJ, Tenacious, Inspiring Writer! – “What A Wonderful Thought It Is That Some Of The Best Days Of Our Lives Haven't Happened Yet”- Unknown

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Specializes in Postpartum, Mother/Baby, Comm. Health, Geriatric.

AWESOME! Nursing school has stipulations that aren't there for medical degrees. Being a "book smart" nurse will get you no where on the floor. Critical thinking is what makes a nurse, an awesome nurse.

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Specializes in Vascular Access.

Remember,

The quote was... Never gave or took any excuse. An EXCUSE is what many people do to rationalize behavior. usually wrong thinking or behavior at that.. but you persevered. Good for you!

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"And that's exactly what I did, as a Bachelorette nursing student we have been taught that the best practice is evidenced based. After all that is what separates a BSN degree versus an ADN degree, we are trained to use our critical thinking knowledge and research the best clinical evidenced based practice."

A) What the dickens is a "Bachelorette" nursing student??

B) Do you really believe that nonsense about "critical thinking" being the difference between BSN grads and ADN grads? Do you really think that ADN-prepared RNs are just mindless automatons repeating rote tasks?

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"After all that is what separates a BSN degree versus an ADN degree, we are trained to use our critical thinking knowledge and research the best clinical evidenced based practice. "

I hate to take the wind out of your sails....but:

1) Don't be so proud of being the bottom grading scale.

2) I really hope that auto-correct is responsible for replacing the word "baccalaureate" with "bachelorette" (the latter is a tv reality show about unmarried women trying to become engaged).

3) "After all that is what separates a BSN degree versus an ADN degree, we are trained to use our critical thinking knowledge and research the best clinical evidenced based practice." - Oh, come on!

4) "However, there is always one that is most correct”. Those pesky priority questions and select all that apply will always be the death of me. In this particular course there were three exam questions that I knew were reasonably debatable and I was going to find the evidence." - And you want to be a nursing instructor?

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Congratulations! All that hard work paying off.

I'd lay off the BSN is better than ADN though. I know a number of ADNs who are great nurses. I know a number of ADNs who plan on getting graduate degrees. I know plenty who are perfectly happy to stay ADNs. In the end, they're all RNs who had training in evidence based practice.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
BornANurseJB said:

After all that is what separates a BSN degree versus an ADN degree, we are trained to use our critical thinking knowledge and research the best clinical evidenced based practice.

Honestly, after that, I stopped reading. What do you think of LVNs then?! Goodness!

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I'm glad you persevered and won. That's a good life experience.

As to the BSN vs. ADN stuff - yeah, probably not a good idea . . . .although.........;)......... in my ADN program it was almost all fundamentals of science/medicine and how to pass that pesky NCLEX. I honestly don't remember ever having to do any real evidence-based researched APA-formatted papers.

My BSN was all about writing those pesky papers. And we had an entire class based just on research and another one on statistics.

For me at least, I can see how learning about evidence-based research and stats has helped me although I've always been a skeptic about things and had to do my own digging around to find things out. In the BSN program, I just learned a little bit more about how to do that reliably.

Congratulations to the OP and I was thinking maybe Bachelorette was the name given a female BSN student in another country. :D

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Specializes in nursing education.
shan409 said:
AWESOME! Nursing school has stipulations that aren't there for medical degrees.

What do you mean by this? Multiple choice tests? Medical students take three levels of USMLE, exams that make NCLEX look like nothing at all.

shan409 said:
Being a "book smart" nurse will get you no where on the floor. Critical thinking is what makes a nurse, an awesome nurse.

The flaw in this logic is that you have to have assimilated the book learning before you can get out there on the floor. "Book smarts" and "critical thinking" are not two separate things. Think of a Venn diagram that overlaps nearly completely.

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Congratulations on putting the time and work in to providing evidence for why you should have passed. The test questions may be irrelevant, but how you handled the situation speaks more to your ability of being effective in the workplace. Happy for your success:)

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Specializes in ICU.

While I am happy for you that you were successful in your appeal, you might want to reconsider that adn versus bsn attitude thing. If you go sailing out into the real world with that mentality, you're gonna make a lot of adns that can certainly critically think MAD. That mentality has no place in nursing.

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I'm currently getting my ADN & BSN (combo degree) and a BSN does not make you a better nurse. Anyone can write a paper, but not everyone can nurse & critically think (which the ADN is all about). The only good thing about the BSN is that employers might want to hire you over another new grad ADN (for magnetic status reasons) and that having your BSN allows you to go quickly into a masters program if you'd like after graduation.

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