I am currently enrolled in my third semester of an ADN program. It was announced at the beginning of this semester that when we start our next semester the grade requirements will change from a 10 point grading scale to a 7 point grading scale. I generally try to keep a positive attitude but there are about 100 students in the program and many have chosen this particular school so they can maintain a higher GPA compared to other schools that have higher requirements. The school of course requires you to sign updates to the handbook or you may not attend class. There is talk of students filing a suit against the school stating they are breaking their initial contract with us by changing the grades. I have heard of schools doing this but cannot locate any documentation of it (I am assuming they have settled out of court).
Generally I am not one to complain but this use to be a well named school with a positive reputation in the community. In the past 3 years they have had a large turnover in staff that is still continuing now. They have lost there national accreditation but still have their regional. (I have heard that the national accreditation is based on how many instructors have a Master's degree).
Can anyone offer information or suggestions on this?
We have to sign saying we've read the syllabus/handbook. If you try and sue the school, they will pull out your signed form and a copy of the handbook that says the school can change requirements/grading scale/whatever without notice. And since you signed that you had read that (whether you did or not) you will have absolutely no leg to stand on. THAT is why you sign that you've read the form. It's more for protection for the school than for you.
My school did the same thing and people threatened to sue the school. Heres the thing, if you can't change the way you do things, get over the change and adapt to the change, theres no way you can hack it as a nurse in these times. Medicine changes constantly and you have to change with it or get out of the way. This profession isn't just sitting at a desk, it's life and death everyday. Stop fighting the school and buckle down with your studies.
To the OP: You really need to learn one very important thing about Nursing. That one thing is flexibility. In school, your clinical assignment can change on a moment's notice. Those care plans you worked so hard (and long) on after prep now have to be tossed aside (not really...) because the patients you chose were discharged or ended up going off to a different floor.
There are more variations on that theme... and that's just the patient care/clinical experience side! The school and program can change the grading scale used upon proper notification. That can be quite literally the first day of class. Only if they were to change the grading scale during the semester/quarter/whatever could you possibly have standing to sue. In every single course I ever attended we were always advised of things like the grading scale used, among a host of other administrative "housekeeping" tasks. It's only after those administrative tasks were completed did we actually begin the formal course of study.
During my "first" 3rd semester, one of those advisals included being told that they were revising the program and the class right after us was the first class to be in the "new" curriculum and our class was the last class of the "old" curriculum. If we were to fail and have to repeat the semester, we'd have to actually roll back to 2nd semester to follow the content that had been moved during the revision of the program.
Guess what? I failed that semester and followed the content to 2nd... thus I had to repeat a full academic year, not just a single semester. Had they done that advisal mid-semester, I might have had standing to sue and complete the semester.
Instead, I was rolled back and I used that flexibility thing and just took advantage of the situation and I graduated easily just a few weeks ago, becoming a highly respected student in the process.
What's the difference between a 7 point and 10 point grading scale? Not much unless you're consistently getting scores that would bump you down a grade in the new scale. If you're consistently getting 93% or higher, you're good. If you're getting 86% all the time, you're still good. You have a choice: adapt and overcome or you can gripe about things and you'll only end up spending time & energy that you otherwise could have directed toward your studies. Seriously, it's your choice how you react to this.
My intention was not to to sue my attending institution but find out what the limits and experiences were/are for nurses who had attended programs an came across situations like this one. I have molded with changes throughout various careers in my life and adjusted well every time there was a change within one. I do not need to be told to adapt, suck it up, and grow. I realize as a nurse this is a must and if you cannot handle that then it isn't the right field for you. The idea of our class speaking to an attorney was to see if it was true that a previous class in another school had 'scared' their school into not changing the grades in the middle of the program.
However, with the idea of approaching a new world where a hospital looks at your GPA prior to hiring you our class is shaken to say the least. It is not absurd to want the advantage over the competition. This program not having its national accreditation alone holds several students back from taking certain perspective careers. This was not announced to ANY student prior to entering or after entering the program. The turn over of the staff is not from the institution letting them go but the instructors (from what I am hearing) walking away because of the issues within the program (again, these are things I have heard).
I am a hard working student and molded my life to run smoothly throughout nursing school to eliminate as many distractions ahead of time. I am not a student that is in danger whatsoever. I have been thinking about this announcement since I first heard classmates discussing it. My initial reaction was to not pull any negative light towards myself/the class nor waste the energy and time. It's hard enough as it is-this I know. But...once we started looking at the grand picture of how this would effect our careers/job placement I wanted to put further thought into it.
Thank you for your time and 'thoughtful' responses.....back to the books.
as long as they make the course work easier, I wouldn't have any problem...... what the school has done is bait and switch, but done it legally. Every time this "what is a "b" at your school" comes up I keep saying the same thing, " you can't compare grades from one school to another school. just. doesn't. work. The students at this particular school used the grading system as one of the criteria to enroll there, now that has been pulled out from under them, I for one, can understand why they would be very irritated.
My intention was not to to sue my attending institution but find out what the limits and experiences were/are for nurses who had attended programs an came across situations like this one. I have molded with changes throughout various careers in my life and adjusted well every time there was a change within one. I do not need to be told to adapt, suck it up, and grow. I realize as a nurse this is a must and if you cannot handle that then it isn't the right field for you. The idea of our class speaking to an attorney was to see if it was true that a previous class in another school had 'scared' their school into not changing the grades in the middle of the program.
However, with the idea of approaching a new world where a hospital looks at your GPA prior to hiring you our class is shaken to say the least. It is not absurd to want the advantage over the competition. This program not having its national accreditation alone holds several students back from taking certain perspective careers. This was not announced to ANY student prior to entering or after entering the program. The turn over of the staff is not from the institution letting them go but the instructors (from what I am hearing) walking away because of the issues within the program (again, these are things I have heard).
I am a hard working student and molded my life to run smoothly throughout nursing school to eliminate as many distractions ahead of time. I am not a student that is in danger whatsoever. I have been thinking about this announcement since I first heard classmates discussing it. My initial reaction was to not pull any negative light towards myself/the class nor waste the energy and time. It's hard enough as it is-this I know. But...once we started looking at the grand picture of how this would effect our careers/job placement I wanted to put further thought into it.
Thank you for your time and 'thoughtful' responses.....back to the books.
Why do people get so bent out of shape when they ask for advice/suggestions and then don't like what they're told? Good grief!
I do not see were you are getting that from this post....
Maybe where OP says she doesn't need to be told to suck it up or grow up. Or maybe where the OP said, "Thanks for all the "thoughtful" responses. Guess that's the problem with message boards. I read it one way, you read it another. The OP just seems a little bent out of shape to me.
I lot of the responses were "thoughtful" as in thoughtless, as in totally unrelated to the OP. and he/she explained why he/she didn't need to be told to suck it up and grow up, which is a crude and rude saying any way. If you don't have a helpful, or at least civil response, why are you bothering??
Maybe where OP says she doesn't need to be told to suck it up or grow up. Or maybe where the OP said, "Thanks for all the "thoughtful" responses. Guess that's the problem with message boards. I read it one way, you read it another. The OP just seems a little bent out of shape to me.
I offered advice like the OP asked. You can agree with it or not. I'm entitled to my opinion just like you are entitled to yours. I'm done with this. Back to my psych book.
springchick1, ADN, RN
1 Article; 1,769 Posts
We have to sign saying we've read the syllabus/handbook. If you try and sue the school, they will pull out your signed form and a copy of the handbook that says the school can change requirements/grading scale/whatever without notice. And since you signed that you had read that (whether you did or not) you will have absolutely no leg to stand on. THAT is why you sign that you've read the form. It's more for protection for the school than for you.