Nursing School Policy Changes

[aaaa1577]

I am currently enrolled in an ADN nursing program in New York. Let me explain a little bit about the program before I go any further. My school is notoriously hard with students failing classes late in the program being a very regular occurrence. That being said my school has a great reputation and a very high NCLEX pass rate. When I first started going to school it wasn't common for student to fail both entry level courses and go on to take them one at a time and end up finishing. Actually repeating multiple nursing courses at my program is very very very regular. Most students end up having to take at least 2 classes over.

When I started nursing school the policy was you could take every single nursing class twice, if you needed to repeat that nursing class you cold only take that one class that semester and the second time you took it you needed to get above a 78%.

My first semester I passed 1 course and failed another with a 74.25 (75 is passing). The following semester I went back and retook the class and received an 80%. My second semester I was advised by other students and teachers not to take med surge and psych together because med surge at my school is notoriously hard and had a very high repeat rate and rather then waste the time and money of failing it I should take it by itself. Well I didn't listen and I went ahead and took both classes together thinking that their is no possible way I will fail both classes and if anything I will go back the next semester and repeat the one that I didn't pass. I also made probably an unwise decision that semester to start working as a tech in a hospital, a tech position by me just outside of NYC is a hard position to come by and I decided to take the opportunity even though orientation would be smack in the middle of two difficult nursing classes. In the end I failed both courses with a 73 and a 74. I was totally devastated both by my own stupidity and for not listening to my friends for advising me not to take on that work load. It took me an entire year to repeat both classes because you are only allowed to take them one at a time. I ended up with above a 90 in both classes and went on to my 3rd level of nursing school.

This semester my school decided to change the policy. They changed it to students are only allowed to repeat a maximum of 3 classes. Instead of receiving a 78 the second go around they only needed to achieve a 75. They informed us of the policy change right before the semester started and after most students had already paid for classes. I am not even going to include the thousands of dollars and years of time I have invested because I know the response I will get.

My main question is it ok for a school to hold a student responsible for something that happened before they changed their policy. Let me be clear, they are telling me that even though I failed 3 classes before the policy change they are still going to hold me accountable and if I fail one more class I am kicked out of the program.

While I understand increases in grades, tests and the fact that policys need to be changed for many reasons I'm still pretty pissed. I have worked my ass off to get to the point I am at. If I had known that they were changing this policy 2 semesters ago I never would have taken those two classes together.

Anyone have any feedback for me? Please keep it positive I'm not looking for a lecture on how the world works.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Most schools fail two classes and your out. You're lucky. I'm guessing the policy change was in reference to a high number of multiple repeated classes by a high number of students that was noticed either by the BoN or the accrediting agency.

You made the informed decision to risk taking two known difficult classes (med-surg and psych) while starting a new challenging job.

Most student handbooks have a disclaimer regarding policy changes. Certain policies such as courses counting towards graduation requirements can be grandfathered. A policy like this is not grandfathered since it's often changed in response to a BoN audit or accreditation agency audit.

I've never heard of a program that lets students repeat any & all nursing major courses once. Most commonly it's two failures and out, possibly 3 in extenuating circumstances. So many students failing and repeating each semester does not speak well of the program. You likely have no option at this point but pass all of your classes moving forward.

Edited to add the fact that you earned 90+ in two difficult classes on second attempt demonstrates you clearly have the scholarship and potential to pass all classes first attempt moving forward. Whatever you did in your second attempt do that moving forward and you won't have to worry about the policy change.

[203bravo, MSN, APRN]

My main question is it ok for a school to hold a student responsible for something that happened before they changed their policy.

The short answer is yes.. they have changed the policy and informed you of the change. Only advice here is do what you have to do to ensure that that there are no more failures.

Best of luck.

[dianah, ASN]

Moved to Nursing Schools forum.

[aaaa1577]

The thing is I have been looking in both the school student hand book and the polices and procedures of the nursing program and nowhere is anything written about policies or polices changes. I am assuming that most if not all changes would come to a vote at what point or notice is required of a school to inform you of upcoming changes.

[WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Yes, a school can do this regardless of if it states so in the handbook or not. Your option at that point would be to either continue on knowing that policy change or leave the school. There is no other option for students nor is there a legal recourse in this matter. Simply put, the school can do as it wishes without any student input.

[Littlebit22]

At least you were able to retake the classes. I was in a nursing program that required a 78 in all nursing courses. When we started the program we were told we would be given the option to retake a class if unsuccessful one time and after that we were out. I failed MedSurg by less than a point and was told that If I took pharmacology and passed that I could retake med surg. After passing pharm they decided to change their policy and wouldn't let anyone repeat nursing classes at all. I have been out nursing school for over a year and finally found a school that would accept me and am happy to say I will be starting over this spring. Sorry for the long post but the point of this is they can do whatever they want as long as they enforce the policy across the board and don't selectively enforce it.