If you fail one class do you fail out of nursing school?

Oh my goodness! Is it true if you do not pass one class for nursing school you fail out of the whole thing?! That would be such a waste of time if you are practically done. If you do not pass one class you fail? You can't retake the class anywhere else? How does that work? I am not in the nursing program yet I was just wondering how that works.

12 Answers

It depends on your school. At my school you're allowed to repeat a class/clinical once if you fail, and you're not always guaranteed to take it the semester following your failure (so you'll probably be behind). If you fail the second time you get kicked out of the program for up to 5 years.

If you're pre-req's are done than yes. I was in sem 1 year two last fall and botched med surg. I killed psych nursing and the med surg clinical. I blamed it on account of failing the med surg class part.

Specializes in Finally an RN!.

Well, unfortunately, yes. Basically, all nursing classes are co-requisites as well as pre-requisites for the next semester. So, there are a cluster of classes that you have to take together, and complete all of those before moving on to the next semester. I don't know how other schools work, but my school allowed someone to re-join at the point they failed out of, when the class was offered next. It is a lot to handle, but at least everyone is in the same boat!

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

In mine yes and we did lose people in the second to last and then last semester. They can wait a year and reapply but there is no guarantee they will be readmitted. :(

Specializes in behavioral health.

If you fail one class, you do not fail nursing school. However, you will probably have to wait a period of time to repeat the course, as it won't be available the next semester. Well, at least that is how it was at school I went to. I failed a med-surg course in my junior level. I was allowed to continue to take another class during my jr. level. However, I was going to have to wait a full yr. before the class that I failed would be available again. The school was "two strikes" and you are out, not one.

Specializes in LTC, wound care.

It's one strike you are out at my school. To Shawnygirl003, you may not know it yet, but most schools *also* administer the HESI test, an "exit test" which is alot like the NCLEX, and you have to pass this HESI test in order to graduate. You might ask students in the program how many students about to graduate have failed the HESI test.

You could succeed and do very well in nursing school, and then fail HESI. In that case, you don't get to graduate, and cannot take the NCLEX. That is the scary, dirty little secret that some nursing schools keep. Just search for threads using "HESI test".

This is another question where it depends on where you go to school. My school admits students twice a year, each fall and spring semester. That means there is always a class offered that you may need.

At my school you can fail one class, and retake it for a better grade the next semester. Im not sure what happens if you fail twice, I assume you would be kicked out though.

If you are talking about pre reqs... well ya, at my school if you failed one of the pre reqs I could not see how it would be possible to get into the program. You get one chance on the pre reqs which was nerve racking.. glad thats over! Just work really hard in nursing school and study alot, good luck!

my school only admit 1 class a year, if you fail a nursing course you aren't kicked out but you get push back a year since each nursing class you need is only given in a specific semester.

It depends on the school. At mine you have to complete four prerequisites before you enter the program. Because it's very competitive you have to do very well in those four courses, basically A's, maybe one B. Once you get into the program, if you fail a course you can take it over the next semester but the minimum passing grade is raised from a C to a C+ for that course. If you fail it a second time you're out of the program.

So basically you're given one chance to repeat a course. Also if you've repeated a course you can't fail any other courses for the rest of the program. In other words, you have one chance to repeat a course for the whole program, not for each course.

The requirements for the prereqs are actually tougher than for the actual program, because you need all A's for the prereqs, and if you have to retake a prereq they don't drop your previous grade, they average it with the retake grade so if you get a C you have to get an A next time in order to average a B, which means you better get A's in all the other prereqs to even have a chance of getting into the program. Once you're in, you only have to get C's to pass the nursing courses. Of course, getting C's in the nursing courses might be harder than getting A's in the prereqs.

Please ask someone at your school - it's different everywhere, as the responses show you. At mine, we could fail two courses, repeat them depending on availability, and if you failed either the same class twice or a third class ever you were kicked out of the program forever - I think, I was never in danger of failing. We also had to take HESI, 2/19 failed it from my class and are repeating preceptorship this fall.

Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.

It depends on the school.

Some schools will bounce you out, by, cu later and that's that. Some schools will offer remediation - where you get the chance to work on the parts you failed and then can continue with the rest of the class the next semester.

Some schools, and I'm willing to bet MOST schools, have a math requirement. You have to pass dosage calculations with a 90% or better or you're out regardless of what your grade is in your other classes.

The thing to keep in mind is that nursing school is so competitive now that by the time you get in, the chances of you flunking out are very slim. You will have worked so hard to beat out the competition that your study and test-taking skills will be top notch.

Specializes in SRNA.

I'm beginning my first (of 4) semesters and the policy at my university states that if you do not pass any one of the required nursing courses you must wait until the course is offered again the following year (summer or fall) to attempt to retake and pass. They do not remove you from the program, however it is a significant waste of time.

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