Nursing schools with SANE policies

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Hello,

I hope no one objects to my joining and asking a question, but we are getting desperate. Our daughter is in nursing school in Ohio. She started at U. of Toledo and was on track to exceed the GPA required to get into nursing school there, but they changed the rules at the last minute and she just missed the mark, as she didn't have time to raise her GPA another tenth of a point.

She transferred to another school in Toledo, one connected to a hospital with a good reputation. We've discovered that at this school, any student who scores below 80 percent in ANY course more than once is kicked out of the program. We know of a student who had successfully completed all her nursing courses and only needed to pass an algebra course to graduate. She scored 79 and was told she could not graduate and would have to repeat the ENTIRE program which she had already passed.

Our daughter is in her third year of the BSN program and is in danger of a second strike that could force her back to square one. That'll be 60k of our money down the tubes. IMO it's a racket that should be investigated. I know many nurses my age who didn't have to endure this...um...stuff. The demand for nurses is at an all time high and it seems like they're making it harder than ever to achieve a degree.

Are all the nursing schools in Ohio like this? What about in other states? We're considering looking at schools in NC, as we have family there.

Does anyone have suggestions for schools that have more sane policies? We would be extremely grateful for any guidance - we don't know where to turn. Thank you for letting me vent.

Carolan

Specializes in HH, Med/surg- liver & kidney transplant, ortho, ++.

I go to a community college in a rural town in Oregon. My school has some policies that are pretty reasonable, I think anyways.

Our AVERAGE test score has to be a 75% or higher. If not we are kicked out of the program.

We can only have 3 clinical deficiencies a YEAR. We can get clinical deficiences by not passing a lab test (PQ), which we have to have an 80% average to pass the term. We can also get a clinical deficiency making some kind of mistake in the clincal setting or not passing a lab redemo.

If we fail any term first year we have to start the year over the follwing fall (have to go through the application process and be accepted again). If we fail any term during second year we can start the second year over. We don't pick up from where we left off, we have to start from the very beginning.

I know for the most part other local community colleges have similar policies.

Hope this helps, and good luck to your daughter.

What your daughter is running into is standard. The guidelines in NS are very strict and many do fail out. Usually about half end up graduating. Unfortunately yours is costing a lot more money.

She might want to look into a local cc to get her RN. She can then get her Bachelors via bridge program which many schools do have.

I would advise her to get a tutor. Also advise her to ask her professor for extra time or permission to take a class twice in the same week if she is having trouble grasping info. Often they will let you sit in again if need be.

Thanks for your response, KellT! My daughter has done very well on her clinicals, has been passing those with flying colors. If she can get an 80 in this one course it's all clinicals from here on out and she'll be home free.

It makes zero sense to me to prevent an otherwise excellent student and wonderful potential nurse from graduating for falling one point below a B in one non-nursing course. Meanwhile this country is importing nurses from foreign countries to fill the need.

When I tell nurses I see (I see a lot of them because I have a chronic disease) about the schools' policies nowadays, their eyes get wide and they can't believe it. Every one of them says "Geez, it wasn't nearly that hard when I was there..."

[deep breath]

I'm sorry, right now I'm just angry. I'll get over it and we'll figure this out. :)

I've heard it's worse now too from those that have gone through the program. They've raised the passing a few points and that can be crucial.

If it's one point and she knows she is close have her ask the professor if she can do some extra credit. That could work.

Specializes in LTC/Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

Went to a Wisconsin school, and to pass a class, greater than 79.5% was needed to continue in the program. This was rounded up to an 80%. 90% was needed to pass medication calculations.

Think about it in terms of your care or the care of a loved one...what is the minimum standard you want your nurse or your loved one's nurse to have? Standards are high for a reason.

As for the nursing shortage, I just heard that health care jobs are still growing, yet most of the major hospital networks in MN announced layoffs or cutbacks in the last 3 months. The reason given was that people are delaying elective procedures, avoiding routine health care, and are unable to pay the medical bills they do have. Therefore, cuts had to be made.

Finally, the program standards here are the same as you are describing in your daughter's program. Does Ohio allow students past a certain point to take the LPN boards? That might be a way of avoiding retaking all the classes. Here pre-reqs. or "non core" classes do not have to be taken. A lot of students here take those non-core classes while they are on the waiting list for the nursing program so that they don't have the same stringent standards of greater than 80%.

Having just finished, and awaiting to take my boards, I wish your daughter luck in her journey, I hope she doesn't give up!

Hello,

I hope no one objects to my joining and asking a question, but we are getting desperate. Our daughter is in nursing school in Ohio. She started at U. of Toledo and was on track to exceed the GPA required to get into nursing school there, but they changed the rules at the last minute and she just missed the mark, as she didn't have time to raise her GPA another tenth of a point.

She transferred to another school in Toledo, one connected to a hospital with a good reputation. We've discovered that at this school, any student who scores below 80 percent in ANY course more than once is kicked out of the program. We know of a student who had successfully completed all her nursing courses and only needed to pass an algebra course to graduate. She scored 79 and was told she could not graduate and would have to repeat the ENTIRE program which she had already passed.

Our daughter is in her third year of the BSN program and is in danger of a second strike that could force her back to square one. That'll be 60k of our money down the tubes. IMO it's a racket that should be investigated. I know many nurses my age who didn't have to endure this...um...stuff. The demand for nurses is at an all time high and it seems like they're making it harder than ever to achieve a degree.

Are all the nursing schools in Ohio like this? What about in other states? We're considering looking at schools in NC, as we have family there.

Does anyone have suggestions for schools that have more sane policies? We would be extremely grateful for any guidance - we don't know where to turn. Thank you for letting me vent.

Carolan

Thanks, Batman. :) It was our intention to get her through a bachelor's degree without her graduating with a load of student loans to pay back. It looks like that dream is slipping away - we saved enough money for four years but after that she's on her own.

Thank you, Sunny. Best of luck on your boards. :)

Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

This is standard, unfortunately. From what I see, even in community colleges, in fact, even moreso, because traditionally, community colleges do not carry the same reputation or prestige of private schools so, they enforce these things even more. They search for a high pass rate for NCLEX, so, in their eyes, this means harder work, higher standards. Also, there are less seats in community colleges due to the lack of clinical instructors. I do notice, however, that their pass rate requirement may tend to be lower, but the competitiveness of 300 students fighting for 60 seats takes its toll on students.

This is not to say that your daughter will not eventually become a nurse, but (at least from where I live, in New York), it may be the same everywhere. Another consideration can be (if this is available), is to become an LPN and then, attend an LPN to RN or LPN to BSN program later. In fact, if your state accepts Excelsior credits, she may be able to attend a school for the LPN, Excelsior would probably accept her old science credits and then, she can possibly do the BSN on line. Good luck!

Thank you pagandeva. (Love your Maya Angelou quote - it's one of my favorites!)

I have no doubt she'll make it eventually. I guess we didn't anticipate it would be this difficult. If we had known going in, we might have made wiser choices and got her through without the student loan burden she faces now.

Specializes in OB, Occupational Health.

I agree with Batman. My school (Hondros College, Cincinnati) has a similar policy in which we must pass all nursing courses with a 78%, and only one nursing course may be repeated. If there is another failure, we are kicked out of the program.

In my case, I broke my foot/ankle during my Med-Surg I class and missed one more clinical than allowed. Although I had a physicians note and pictures of my foot (purple and swollen to the size of a grapefruit) and went through the school's grievance process I had to ultimately repeat the course.

I agree that it seems counter-productive to make it difficult to obtain a nursing degree but student nurses must held to a more rigorous standard because we are in the business of dealing with the life and death of others.

It is super frustrating and scary to think that so much money could be spent for naught.

Definitely look into a tutor if that's the help she needs and have her communicate, communicate, communicate with her professors. A school is going to be much more willing to do everything they can to help a student who has taken ownership of their education.

Good luck to your daughter.

Thank you, boogaloo. This school doesn't discriminate between nursing and non-nurses courses, unfortunately. She didn't do well on her first exam in this class, and even though she figured out how to study for the course and has done well on subsequent exams, it may not be enough to climb out of the hole.

I understand the point about how critical certain skills are for health care workers - I have a couple of chronic conditions and interface with nurses on a regular basis. :) I had three surgeries this year and the nurses who cared for me in three different hospitals were amazing.

However, I have to ask...how much difference is there between a nurse who scored a 79.5 in algebra, and one that scored an 80? From my perspective as a patient, not enough to make me trust him or her less.

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