Need Advice...how to get back into NS?

[arigato]

I was in the top of the theory class, but had issues with Clinical. It didn't help that my Clinical instructor insulted me in front of the class "I'm surprised someone with a 95 average can't think of something else to say..". in response to a question that only a pharmacist and HER apparently knew the answer to and "you have the lowest grade in here BY FAR...." in response to the grade she awarded me on my care plan. And these were just a few of the comments she graced me with....

She would grade my care plans and consistently give me 1point less than passing even though she would say that I was improving... And add to the fact that I had 2 small children, and a baby who was only 3mths when classes started and a 2 1/2 year old son who was having seizures, (was not diagnosed at the time, but now has been officially diagnosed with a complex partial seizure disorder) I just didn't have the time to spend extra time practicing in the lab.

The CI ended up failing me when my then 6mth old baby got an infection and had to be admitted to the hospital. It was a Weds and clinical was Thursday. I called her as soon as I could to inform her of the situation and let her know I would be absent the following day. My last care plan was due the next day, but I told her I would arrange with my husband to trade off with me at the hospital and turn in my paper prior to the end of the clinical day. We were allowed to miss up to 2 days of clinical, and I hadn't missed any. Her response? "I'm tired of dealing with it just give it to (my theory teacher) Monday and let her grade it!" and hung up....not I'm sorry you're baby is sick, nothing but that.... I get to theory on Monday, and informed by the theory instrutor that I have a meeting with the Head of NSing dept that afternoon at 4. I'm then told that my Clinical Instuctor has marked me as Failing and that I would not be allowed to continue my program, but that I could try to retake the semester at a later date.

This was almost 2 years ago, and we have moved from the area (husband is in the Navy, and we are currently stationed overseas) I am working on getting a bachelor's degree so that I can get my grades back up. I had 3.8 prior to Nursing school, but now have 2.8.

My question is basically when I get back to the states, how can I convince the new school that I deserve another chance? Do I just say that I had some family issues and leave it at that? I don't want to come off like I'm making excuses because I need to take responsibility for my own short comings. I did have some issues with clinical skills, and I've always been kinda clumsy. I do believe that my CI was very unfair to me, but I still have to deal with the fact that I didn't practice as much as I should have and that's no one's fault but my own.

Anyway, sorry for such a long post! Anyone have any advice/encouragement?

[ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN]

I had a VERY similar experience last fall. I had a solid B in theory, which was pretty good considering the nearly half of my class that was failing theory alone.. My CI constantly embarrassed me in front of the group, and talked down on me, making me feel worthless. ALmsot my whole clinical group had some kind of patient care experience except me and i felt she was unfairly judging me because i didnt already know how to do some skills. It also didnt help that I was the only one that did not add her on facebook... Anyway I wrote a big long post about it if you are really interested in the exact situation:

im freaking out here.. i could fail clinical and i dont know why! - Nursing for Nurses

So... she failed me. I tried to fight it, but to no avail. My CC said I was allowed one readmit, but I would probably have to wait until fall of 2012 to get back in. My GPA went from a 3.4 to a 2.3, so I couldn't even apply to any nursing schools right away. (They all require at least a 2.5 around here). So I took a semester of easy classes that I can one day use towards my B.S.N., I got 2 As and a B, and brought my gpa up to a 2.66. Not wonderful, but enough to qualify to apply to other schools.

Too bad that by the end of Spring semester it was too late to apply to most of the schools in my area because they all start int he Fall, and their deadlines to apply were in Feb/March. I found a school that is about 45 mins away and decided to apply there, because their deadline was june 1st. I got an interview and of course my clinical failure came up. I told them that I passed theory but failed clinical. Instead of telling them all of the crap about my stupid instructor (I felt talking negatively about the instructor, no matter how true it was, would ultimately reflect negatively on me), I just bit my toungue and said I didn't do as well in clinical as I would have liked, and my instructor did not think I was ready to move on to Nursing 2 yet. I made sure to tell them that I did not fail due to injuring/putting a patient in danger in anyway, and that i just had some difficulty perfecting skills.

If you say something like this, they will probably ask you what youve done to improve yourself that makes you think you are ready now. I started volunteering with a hospice agency to get myself more comfortable talking to patients, I also got a job as a PCA in an Assisted Living Facility (Which happened after the interview, but before their decision, so I emailed the recruiter to let her know, just in case it would influence their decision).

After a month or two of waiting, I got the letter saying I got in!!!

Hope this helps give you some hope.. it is possible. I hate all the people on here that act like you cant get into Nursing school without a 4.0... its more than grades. If they see that you really want it and you are determined they will take that into consideration. They will also see your grades for all your prereqs and see that you are not a bad student. Good Luck!!!

[arigato]

I read your other thread, thanks for posting it! My CI was a lot like yours. Everyone else in my clinical group passed except me, and this includes the "girl who refused to touch anyone" and "girl who was so incompetent that she was not allowed to care for a pt on her own". Yea, so I'm the one every other student ask to help them in clinical, and the one that the staff nurses come to find to show me the "cool stuff" since I was one of the few in my group that actively tried to stay busy and experience everything I could. I had a RN with a BSN (we were in an ADN program) as a neighbor and I even gave my care plans to her, for her to look over and give advice on, she said that she thought they were perfectly fine.

I'm glad that you were able to be accepted to a new program! I totally know your pain! For a while I didn't even know if I would even continue to pursue nursing again, because I worried about having the same problem in another school. How can I possibly fight some one who has complete control over my grade and it's basically at their discretion? No way to fight it, and no appeal the decision there has to be something wrong with that. It probably also didn't help that I "blew the whistle" on some girls who were leaving clinical during lunch to go drink... Well I definatly learned to keep my mouth shut, but not sure what else I can do to protect myself.

I am going to take some classes to finish my AA (and get my gpa repaired) while I'm overseas, then try to get into a BSN program. REALLY hoping my science gpa will boost my status in the eyes of the new school!

[ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN]

Yeah, I also contemplated give up nursing because I thought I would never get in, or I would have another fiasco like that but ultimately, I decided that I want this bad enough that I am willing to give it another go. I start clinicals in January and I am terrified that I am going to get another nightmare of a CI. I am just crossing my fingers this time that I dont. I have also learned my lesson to just kiss as much a** as possible, that seems to be the way to get a good clinical grade. haha. Good Luck! I hope you find a good school that will accept you!