Need Help Wife is about to give up

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My wife has been working for several years her ADN, she is currently taking Advanced Medical-Surgical class.

Last year was her second year of the ADN program, and she had to retake Advanced Concepts of Pharmacology, she has missed two questions on a pharmacology calculation test and they were required to pass missing only 1 question.

So even though she has a 90% in the class they failed her. They made her retake then entire class, and told her she could not continue on with the advanced med surg class, the second time she passed the test 100%. This delayed her program by an entire year.

Now she is back into class and is struggling. She gets has anxiety issue when it comes to test taking and just failed her first test in the class. She got caught up on several question and did not finish her test. I told her she needed to skip the question if it was taking too long and go onto other questions.. She said she knew that but just forgot her test taking skills. She has a three more tests to take in the class and needs to get a 77% average on all the tests... If she does not pass this class she is done and cannot go back into the program. After this class, she would have only two more classes to complete her degree.

At this point she is questioning weather or not she should continue at all. I don't know what to tell her, she is only 3 classes away from completing her degree but it seems she is struggling soo much. She knows the material really well, but just chokes on the tests. Her teacher suggested speaking with her schools instructional support office as they may be able to get her help. She is studying from sun up to sundown or even longer, and now she is questioning if she even wants this as her career...

Perhaps she could take the transition to LPN course and go work as an LPN for a while, and then come back to the RN degree. I'm not sure she can even go back into the program ever is she doesn't pass this class... If she drops the class now we cannot get the tuition back so I'm telling her she should try her best and continue on to the end...

Any advice would be appreciated...

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She may not be qualified to take the LPN route, and this does not address her test anxiety after all she will have to pass the NCLEX test.

How about a tutor to assist her with the testing issue, she has come this far she should not give up.

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Specializes in critical care: trauma/oncology/burns.

hello student:

wow, can i ever relate to what your wife is going through!

when i was in nursing school i studied my bum off and i needed to get a 80 on the exams....and i would get a 79.9 or 79.5. then when my instructors gave me the test again like three days later i did much better (the second test score didn't count) i agree with your wife's instructor who told her to go to the support service. i have been told that there is a way to take multiple answer exams, a logical way but....i have yet to figure that out (how to take an exam)....so even though i am like 100 years old (smile) i still struggle with taking exams. i would suggest that your wife identifies her struggles with taking exams (it seems like she already has) and see if the school or program can offer her some tips and support

but i would ask that she think twice before giving up. she has come so far! my goodness, only three classes and she would have graduated.

listen, please tell your wife i will keep her in mind.

athena

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Specializes in Orthopedic, Corrections.

My school will make special allowances for students with test anxiety, but you have to ask for help. Maybe they can give her the test in a different room, or give her more time? She can't get help if she does not ask for it. Also, maybe talking to someone would help her anxiety, my school has free counseling for students, and our teachers say that she knows the nursing students when they walk in the door!!!! School is stressful. Maybe talking to someone will help her cope with the extra stress and anxiety.

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Specializes in NeuroICU/SICU/MICU.

My instructor said our program director occasionally sends students in our program to their primary care doctor to get an Rx for antianxiety meds to take prior to exams. That might help your wife's test anxiety. She's come too far to give up now :redbeathe Best of luck!

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She is very near to completion and obviously she can do it.

Might be worth it for her to meet with counselling service to

try to help her re: the anxiety (some of them are very good).

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Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

I too am in my last semester and I can honestly tell you that for the first time in my schooling, I considered dropping out of the program. The last theory class was the most difficult one of the entire program. I was on the fence for passing right up until the last exam. The 'new' program changed from an exam average of 78% to now an 80%. I managed to squeek by on the exams, and missed a B in the class by 1 point. Wouldn't have mattered one bit if I wouldn't have passed the exams though.

Support your wife! I found a thread here and actually printed out what the poster wrote and read it the night before every exam. The thread was titled My Story: The long way around (long post). By reading this woman's struggles, I was able to put my own into perspective. I hope you can find it, read it, and see if it might help your wife.

She can do this and she is not alone with her struggle. Many of us are right with her. Good luck.

There was also another thread titled How I take a test and get an A. That helped too.

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Specializes in CVICU, CPCU, Cath Lab/IR.

We use fundamentals for success and test for success and they work pretty good!

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Thanks everyone for the advise… I've encouraged my wife to go into the schools support office, as giving students extra time on tests is one of the things they can arrange… When she gets through all the test she does very good on them…

One of the other frustrating issues for this course is that the teacher is not teaching from the book, but teaching from a set of her lecture notes… She hands out sets of her "Copyrighted" lecture notes for each lecture with missing sections, and the students are supposed to fill in the missing parts of the notes.. My wife finds this to be quite distracting as you are to paying attention to the lecture, only trying to fill in the missing blanks….

Another one of her co students who is repeating the class said nothing from the book was on any of the tests and to only study her lecture notes… My wife found this to be true from the last test…

Still the classes are what they are albeit good or bad and she needs to adapt to pass the class…. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope she musters through it… I'll keep encouraging her and finding ways to things easier at home...

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Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

1 word: anxiolytics.

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Thanks everyone for the advise… I've encouraged my wife to go into the schools support office, as giving students extra time on tests is one of the things they can arrange… When she gets through all the test she does very good on them…

One of the other frustrating issues for this course is that the teacher is not teaching from the book, but teaching from a set of her lecture notes… She hands out sets of her "Copyrighted" lecture notes for each lecture with missing sections, and the students are supposed to fill in the missing parts of the notes.. My wife finds this to be quite distracting as you are to paying attention to the lecture, only trying to fill in the missing blanks….

Another one of her co students who is repeating the class said nothing from the book was on any of the tests and to only study her lecture notes… My wife found this to be true from the last test…

Still the classes are what they are albeit good or bad and she needs to adapt to pass the class…. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope she musters through it… I'll keep encouraging her and finding ways to things easier at home...

For some people taping the lecture helps so they can fill in any missing pieces of the notes later. Do you know if her teacher allows for her lectures to be recorded?

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Consider a Pulse Smartpen by Livescribe. You use the notebooks that come with the pen and the pen records lecture while it also keeps track of your notes. Then if you need to hear some particular part of your notes all you have to do is tap the pen on that spot in your notes and the pen will play the lecture from that point. (Pen has a recorder and a sort of GPS that works with the notebooks)You don't have to try to keep track of where what notes are. It is the MOST amazing recording device. I use it for every single lecture. (Actually read about it here on a list of necessary items for nursing students.) I recently received an email from the companyhttp://www.livescribe.com/offering 5% discount with the following code: SCRIBE5A50

Best wishes to your wife, I second or third the suggestion to seek help for her test anxiety. Our nursing instructors, God bless 'em, actually had the counseling center come out and talk about how to combat test anxiety and let us know what services were available. Tell her to hang in there. She also may need to take just a few hours for herself, lay in the bathtub and just destress. Not think about school for just that small bit of time, and then she'll have more enthusiasm for it when she's a little refreshed. Best wishes and many prayers to you both.

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