7 months to graduation and I fail a nursing course d/t my careplans

Nursing Students Student Assist

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:oI am so depressed. I have never had an issue with my careplans until I get to my pediatric rotation and on the last day of class i was called to my teacher's office and was told that I failed the course because of my care plans. Now I have to appeal the grade, and I am praying that it goes into my favor. I have a 84% in the course and I was "exceptional" in the clinical component (per my instructors) but they feel that I should not graduate until I can master these care plans. I have redone these care plans over and over, consulting with these teachers a total of 6 times, but when they all tell you something different and you don't know which one will be grading your care plan, it gets pretty overwhelming. I went to multiple teachers who have taught at the school for years and they said that my careplans were fine. Everyone is saying that I will win the appeal, but there is still a great deal of fear inside me, for I am to graduate in may 2008. Has anyone ever heard of students failing a course over a careplan? Other teachers at the school state that this is unheard of. ANY recommendations you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

It is THEIR job to insure that the concepts are taught. Since the rubric was such a critical key in whether or not someone will pass the course, they should have continually referred to it and had a copy of it in your course materials.

Tell the dean that you will be more than happy to redo your careplans with the assistance of the rubric that you did not have before. If they still don't like your work...then fine. However, I have a feeling with a template of what they are looking for.....you will pass with flying colors.

Keep us posted!

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Here is the update, I went to the preliminary hearing today (basically following the steps before I file an appeal) and was told by these three instructors that on the first day of clinical they did give a careplan rubric to the 1st term senior students and the reason why they failed me was because I never did anything based on the rubric. Here's the problem about this statement: I WASN'T THERE FOR THE FIRST FOUR WEEKS!:angryfire The course coordintor scheduled all my community experiences in the first 4 weeks, I did not get to the clinical unit until the 5th week, and no one gave me a rubric. Did any of these teachers take me to the side and say, "I know you have had your community experiences so lets go over what is expected of you in this clinical"? No, why? Because one teacher thought that the other teacher did it, AND the rubrics were all gone, so they ASSUMED that the last one was given to me by SOMEONE. Man I was more angry when I left that meeting, I let all of those teachers have it, and our dean was very vocal in how disappointed she was that unorganization is the sole reason why I was failed in this course. Thinking more into this, when I was constantly bugging these teachers for help with these care plans, NONE of them even thought to pull out this so- called rubric? I never knew there was a rubric until this meeting. It would be an understatement to say that I am highly pissed. Now, I have to wait and see if the teachers are going to change their minds about failing me or if I have to actually file an appeal. Thanks for listening.

Wow. That really is inexcusable. You should have been given the guideline and when you first started having trouble, it should have been referred to way back then. If that had happened you could have said "hey, I never received that, may I have a copy?" Stay calm and professional, yet assertive. i have a feeling that you will be reinstated. I agree with whoever said to offer to redo the assingments in a reasonable time frame now that you know where to find the correct guidelines. This might sweeten them up and allow you to pass.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

I agree that it is unfair that you were never given the necessary guidelines to use and that the instructors never made any reference to them.

However, you did make judgment errors in the choice of the nursing diagnosis you used for the patient with an infection and your construction of the nursing diagnostic statement. You said in post #3 "since I am always told to write more, I just listed everything I could think of about the patient, to make the care plan satisfactory" and you ended up "list[ing] a "slew of AEB" (her exact words), which [was] not appropriate for a Risk diagnosis". When I first read that I thought that it sounded pretty reckless as well as desperate. You can't practice nursing that way. You have to know what you are doing and why you are doing it. In post #3 you stated that you were told that you did not know the nursing process and in post #5 you yourself said you needed to review the nursing process. That is a major, major problem. The steps of the nursing process and what goes on in each of them should roll off a student's lips and be recited in their sleep as they approach graduation. It is how we solve nursing problems. NCLEX is going to filled with questions where you will need to take the nursing process into consideration. Working RNs spend their workdays solving problems by using the nursing process. That is what we are paid to do. It's true we don't write them down in care plans as meticulously as we did in nursing school, but, believe me, the process is going on in our brains all the time.

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Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.
I agree that it is unfair that you were never given the necessary guidelines to use and that the instructors never made any reference to them.

However, you did make judgment errors in the choice of the nursing diagnosis you used for the patient with an infection and your construction of the nursing diagnostic statement. You said in post #3 "since I am always told to write more, I just listed everything I could think of about the patient, to make the care plan satisfactory" and you ended up "list[ing] a "slew of AEB" (her exact words), which [was] not appropriate for a Risk diagnosis". When I first read that I thought that it sounded pretty reckless as well as desperate. You can't practice nursing that way. You have to know what you are doing and why you are doing it. In post #3 you stated that you were told that you did not know the nursing process and in post #5 you yourself said you needed to review the nursing process. That is a major, major problem. The steps of the nursing process and what goes on in each of them should roll off a student's lips and be recited in their sleep as they approach graduation. It is how we solve nursing problems. NCLEX is going to filled with questions where you will need to take the nursing process into consideration. Working RNs spend their workdays solving problems by using the nursing process. That is what we are paid to do. It's true we don't write them down in care plans as meticulously as we did in nursing school, but, believe me, the process is going on in our brains all the time.

isn't that the truth.. by the time i was graduating from RN school i did care plans in my sleep. i actually do care plans in my head when dealing with patients , of course i have to do some on each admit , but i do them when giving care and hearing their admit dx... i have been a nurse for 22 years now and i still do them all the time. it's a natural thing to do. the patients get the best care that way. knowing the nursing process is very important and helps you deliver safe nursing.

keep us updated on your appeal. good luck in school

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Hem/Onc/Psyc.

Update- i received a letter of apology from the assistant dean and the course coordinator and the clinical instructor that basically was useless to me will no longer be teaching there after this semester. The assistant dean reviewed my care plans and said that there was nothing wrong with them (with the exception of the one I messed up d/t me being overwhelmed) at which she said that ALL nurses make some mistakes and it does not mean that I will not be a bad nurse. She also gave me I guess what you would call a "verbal quiz" on care plans and let's just say I passed with flying colors. The only issue left was that she cannot force the teachers to change the grade so I would have to appeal, there was one more openingg for the course that started the following term (we are on semesters but our clinical courses are in 8 week sessions) and with all the other students that failed this clinical d/t care plans they took the openings that was available next semester. I put my pride to the side and am taking the course now. I was really happy and surprised that I received those apology letters. The good thing is that I will get an A and since I already have a 3.2GPA and my other class is easy as pie I will have a 4.0 this semester!!! The bad thing is now I won't graduate until July 08, oh well....

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So sorry to read about your dilemma! I have never heard of flunking a student over their care plan! All of my care plans were different. It, as you said, all depending on who was correcting them. I know that your going to win your case! Best of luck to you!

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

I'm glad things worked out for you.

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