50 out of 100 Nursing students failed program

sistasoul · Mar 9, 2008

That article is exactly right. Student's need to suffer. Especially nursing student's. What really burns me up is the fact that when you do graduate and get your license after all the torture, the instructors want to be friends because they made you what you are. For example the instructor I talked about above called me at home and left a message. She wanted me to call her back just to see how my boards went, she said I was a such a good student and she missed me. I thought Yeah! Right! She is just trying to brown-nose and find out about the questions on the boards. I wouldn't give her air much less test questions. Sorry! You reap what you sew.

Good for you. When I graduate I think I am going to go to the president of the school because this seems to be an ongoing "problem" with this certain instructor. I am so infuriated at what she is doing to me and will do to others. She needs to know that this is not all right!!!

mrs.captain.kangaroo · Mar 9, 2008

We had a lot of people fail this past semester. Many of those that failed would have made terrific nurses but had a lot on them - work, family that a lot of those who passed did not. It breaks my heart because these were compassionate kind people who I personally would love to have as a nurse. I feel they would be better nurses than me and I passed. Some of the people that passed were cheaters, people who put down others in a rude way, and who I would jump out of the bed rather than be nursed by them.

ORRocksRN · Mar 9, 2008

We had a lot of people fail this past semester. Many of those that failed would have made terrific nurses but had a lot on them - work, family that a lot of those who passed did not. It breaks my heart because these were compassionate kind people who I personally would love to have as a nurse. I feel they would be better nurses than me and I passed. Some of the people that passed were cheaters, people who put down others in a rude way, and who I would jump out of the bed rather than be nursed by them.

I couldn't agree more. I was kicked out of the program with a 4.0 GPA. There are many who are failing tests who are given 2nd and 3rd chances to retake the tests. And there are many people in my previous class who will be graduting in June that I can't BELIEVE are still in the program. If i ever saw some of them walking into my room if i were a pateint, I would run like HE-double hockey sticks! Scary, rude, self centred, lack of social skills and stupidity abound in my previous program which will graduate and enter the workforce soon. I just hope I don't get sick.

luvleee · Mar 10, 2008

My class started off with 181 students.

In my fourth semester now, there are 120 students remaining.

Dublin37 · Mar 10, 2008

hello all,
i am in my 4th semester and will graduate in may. i have a clinical instructor who is known to pick out one student every semester and give them a bad time. i guess it is me this semester. she has handed me back a care plan four times to redo and another one three times. i have never received clinical paperwork back in my other semester so why is there a problem all of a sudden? i spend at least 20 hrs a week on this clinical paperwork before i hand it in. it is all very frustrating. she has an undertone of nastiness when she deals with me. i keep telling myself i only have to deal with this person 3 more times and i will never have to deal with her again. all of this redoing of paperwork is causing me to barely squeak by on my tests. i was feeling really depressed about all of this when a nursing school buddy of mine sent me this article. everything in the article is 100% correct and i feel this is why some students don't make it.
"many nurse educators thrive on the feeling of superiority that comes from controlling students and junior faculty and their futures. this abuse of power is related to feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, discontent, and personal envy, often with a "jekyll and hyde" component. individual educators are only part of the quandary. some academic centers subscribe to the steadfast education philosophy that students need to suffer in order to learn. nursing curricula, testing, and grading are exhausting and often based on minutiae. clinical paperwork can be monumental, and unrealistic expectations of both students and junior faculty abound. a number of education institutions merely give "lip service" to adult
learning principles and place minimal value on students' past experiences or their right to be treated as an adult. some educators even go as far as to brag about their program's
attrition rate as a correlation to the program's rigor and superiority."
i know this post is long but this is something i feel strongly about. thank god not all ci are like this. this makes me want to be an instructor to show students that ci can be supportive.

i could not agree with you more!!!! :up: it turns my stomach :madface: how a few ego starved, power hungry can fail so many students who would make excellent nurses! i was in a school like that and left it. i know it's not always an option, i feel so thankful!

kcochrane · Mar 10, 2008

My LPN clas started with 43, we ended up with 29 or so. ONE person was kicked out for failing. She had to take a comprehensive final in fundamentals since she did not have a high enough average (I think 80%). She flunked the comprehensive by one point (needed a 70%). At the time I felt it was unfair- I mean one point? But later on, as the program became harder, I realized she would have done even worse and I understood why they couldn't just "find" that extra point for her.

Most of the students left due to absense issues - over 60 hours. A few had some personality conflicts with the instructor.

To me, the biggest problem was that the person interviewing the candidates was a counselor with no nursing experience. IMHO she should have had at least one nurse with her to ask questions.

I'm now waiting to see if I got in this fall as a advanced standing LPN for my AN. If I get in, I will be joining in the 2nd semester. I am interested now in what out fail rate is. Although former students say that all the instructors are great and really help.

Wonder what the pass/fail rate is for LPNs that go to RN school? Do they have an advantage?

azor · Mar 10, 2008

Nursing is hard the first year but when the going gets tough,then the toough gets going.you have to know that nursing requires a lot in terms of school.Many people rush into nursing cos it sounds good but when the reality creeps in on them.They start running away.i think its a matter of knowing what yo want out of your life.

BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN · Mar 10, 2008

She had to take a comprehensive final in fundamentals since she did not have a high enough average (I think 80%). She flunked the comprehensive by one point (needed a 70%). At the time I felt it was unfair- I mean one point? But later on, as the program became harder, I realized she would have done even worse and I understood why they couldn't just "find" that extra point for her.

Exactly. Where do we draw the line? First its one point, then it's two and so on. If she failed by one point (if that is even true, you can't believe everything you hear, people never want to admit that they failed by more than one point, I've seen students tell that to other students, when I knew it was not true) then she was obviously at risk. The content gets harder, so next time it would be more than likely that it will be more than one point.

Alternator81 · Mar 10, 2008

Exactly. Where do we draw the line? First its one point, then it's two and so on. If she failed by one point (if that is even true, you can't believe everything you hear, people never want to admit that they failed by more than one point, I've seen students tell that to other students, when I knew it was not true) then she was obviously at risk. The content gets harder, so next time it would be more than likely that it will be more than one point.

I totally agree. If you fail the class by 1 point, then you didn't meet the class standards. That's just the way it goes--you need to draw the line somewhere. In my program, grading is very objective. As nice as my instructors have been and no matter how much they like a student, they would never start changing grades to let a student pass. You either earn the points or you don't. Welcome to higher ed.

gaajr1, RN · Mar 10, 2008

Everytime I hear about the failing rate it scares me. Reasons for that are plenty and one of them, life is not fair.

What can we do about it? As students it is very imp that we keep our focus and keep reminding ourselves the reasons for being here. If we have a problem it is best to talk about it with classmates who are positive in their attitude, and instructors.

I agree we have to work a lot, and juggle everything else that's going on in our lives. But we came so far, not to quit but stay and prove to ourselves first, that we CAN DO IT.

It is no use corrupting our thoughts about the attitudes of some instructors. Because we can't do anything about it.

I am with you and can relate with your feelings but let us look at it as a cup half full rather than half empty. Our mind set is very imp if we want to get through successfully.

Good luck to all.

moniqueforever · Mar 10, 2008

failure rates have nothing to do with students being lazy and not studying. i had classmates that had 4.0 GPAs before nursing school and graduated with 2.5s. not because they were dumb or did not apply themselves. nursing school tests are critical thinking test and not memorization test. you can quote facts all day but in nursing school you have to know how to analyze, process, and apply that information for an outcome pertaining to that particular patient. that can be very hard if you have not answered analysis and application questions.

freegirl · Mar 15, 2008

At my school 50 out of 100 nursing students failed thier first semester. They didnt make it. Geeze is nursing school that hard. I get really good grades but is it really that hard? These students must not be that dedicated. IL college...

I couldn't help but add my 2cents to this post. That is a really high failure rate and the teachers also have to re-evaluate their method of teaching. Some teachers feel good about students failing cos they think it makes them look like they are doing their job of weeding out unqualified students. I have a friend who failed by less than a point, His was 76.4, He needed a 76.5 to be rounded up to the 77 pass rate. The funny thing is that the teacher subtracted 1 point for him handing in one of his papers late. All his appeals were ignored.

On the other hand, for schools that have open door admission policy for whatever reasons, that's what happens.

I was rejected twice from my current nursing school for low pre-nursing gpa b4 being accepted. I am in my final semester now with so many academic honors and community service awards from the same school. And I think the rejections hurt but motivated me. If I had gotten in on 1st try, probably I would be less serious.