No degree

Nursing Students General Students

Published

I went to school for 18mos only to fail out the last semester by the clinical instructor from hell. I just set up my payment of $173/ mo for the next 10 years. I just plain feel wronged. How in the world do you have a program where students go all the way through 5 semesters to be discounted and ejected by one instructor.

Last semester I also had a preceptorship with a RN at a local hospital. He wrote on my evaluation that I would be an asset to any hospital.

I did have one more try at my school after this initial fail. I just had lost complete trust in the school. The instructor fabricated and altered reality on my evals and I felt helpless to argue. I just didn't feel like rebutting any of her statements would do me any good.

When I talked to the HON she started off by saying, "After reviewing your Evaluation, I don't understand why she kept you around as long as she did". She went on to say that I couldn't allow people to intimidate me and she envisioned me one day being a adjunct faculty member. I was just puzzled by the whole thing.

I have days when I regret that I didn't reapply, but life has also presented some new challenges. I discovered I was pregnant at age 38 in Jan. I definitely couldn't have made it through another semester with the fatigue and nausea I experienced through my first trimester.

I also work full time for an insurance company and will be 100% vested in my pension in Nov 2016 so I just couldn't leave, even though it was recommended during school. I am thinking I want to take the NCLEX-PN and try to work a couple days a week and then maybe transition back into an RN program later down the road.

Is anyone else paying student loans for a degree you didn't achieve? How frustrating. I just don't understand how schools get away with it. Can't somebody spot that you may not be RN material before students are in $15,000 or more of school loan debt?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Peds Homecare.

"I am thinking I want to take the NCLEX-PN and try to work a couple days a week " Not all states allow you to do that. It is no longer allowed in NY. To be an LPN here, you have to complete an LPN program.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I was told by instructor that I could register for the NCLEX-PN since I passed the first four semesters. That was this past December, but I never went and registered. I've sent an email to my advisor requesting more information, so maybe I will still be eligible or maybe here is SC laws could have changed as well. I'm so hoping I still can.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Let me get this straight. You had the opportunity to re-apply and complete the degree, but didn't follow through on it. THEN you had the opportunity to sit for the NCLEX-PN and did not follow through on that, either?

I am not sure how we can help you. The ball is (and has been for a while) squarely in YOUR court. You are the only person who can resolve this - and yet you are not taking the steps that you CAN take.

Why is this?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
Let me get this straight. You had the opportunity to re-apply and complete the degree, but didn't follow through on it. THEN you had the opportunity to sit for the NCLEX-PN and did not follow through on that, either?

I am not sure how we can help you. The ball is (and has been for a while) squarely in YOUR court. You are the only person who can resolve this - and yet you are not taking the steps that you CAN take.

Why is this?

I am curious as well...you had the option to return to your final semester and PASS with a vengeance with the faculty behind you.

You have the power to complete the program per your post...DO IT!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pedi.

Do you think that you shouldn't have to pay for classes that you fail? Come again? Your tuition is the cost of your schooling, there is no guarantee that it will end with a degree. If you do 7 semesters of college and then don't complete the last one you won't have a degree, but you still have to pay back the loans you took out to pay for those 7 semesters. This is nothing that schools "get away with." You didn't pass the program. There is no "money back guarantee" with education. You took the classes and you therefore need to pay for them.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I just wish schools could identify students that may be at risk of failing at an earlier time in their education and counsel them on ways to improve or suggest other career options. I have not registered for the NCLEX-PN or reapplied largely in part to becoming pregnant and already working full time. With a miscarriage in my medical history, I didn't feel it was the right move to take on a new semester. Due to nausea and fatigue I just haven't felt up to going for the NCLEX-PN. I found out 8 weeks ago my Thryoid was not functioning properly and now that I have been on Synthroid for the past two months my energy level is back up and I want to try to move forward. Yes I do feel frustrated paying for an education and then in the last semester being told my instructor, that she is sorry other teachers have passed me along, but I am not at the level I need to be for a 5th semester student. Why all of the sudden am I not up to par.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

Ok, but you can still return to the program...nothing is stopping you now but your feelings about what happened...

Do you want to be a RN? If so, go to the school, come up with a plan, if they allow you to test and challenge and just do the last semester, again, GO...let GO of those feelings, and try again.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

If you only failed clinical, but passed your other classes, then you may be able to do your last semester only having to complete clinical! Trust me, I know lots of students that would kill to have only clinical their final semester. It won't be as bad as you think.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I so wish that was the case, but as soon as you failed clinical you weren't allowed to attend any more lectures or take any more tests due to their concern that you would distract the other students. So I never did get to take the last test or final, so I failed lecture also. We all thought that was the strangest policy. If you were gonna have to retake the course, it would have been beneficial to finish off the lectures and tests.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I so wish that was the case, but as soon as you failed clinical you weren't allowed to attend any more lectures or take any more tests due to their concern that you would distract the other students. So I never did get to take the last test or final, so I failed lecture also. We all thought that was the strangest policy. If you were gonna have to retake the course, it would have been beneficial to finish off the lectures and tests.

However, you must pass clinical and theory to pass the class; that's included in the credit course.

You still have the opportunity to repeat the course and clinical; again, nothing is stopping you except YOU; reach out, and contact the school, buckle down, and try again, if this is what you want. :yes:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I appreciate all your responses. I truly love getting your advice because your friends and ex classmates don't always tell you what you need to hear, they can tend to tell you what you want to hear.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment