abzurdity

As Moto pointed out, I was not making excuses for, or attempting to justify, the behavior of the students who were dismissed from your program. However, I have made mistakes in my life, and I am lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to correct many of those mistakes, and learn from them. Additionally, I don’t think that anyone would think it fair or reasonable for others to judge their mistakes from afar, with incomplete information, and then make sweeping judgements about their character, integrity, or worth as a human being (or their fitness to be a nurse at some indeterminable future date). It is objectively the case that the decision to readmit these students is far beyond your influence or control, and I still don’t think it’s worth your time to worry about them. If they aren’t good nursing material, then surely your program will reveal that in due time. Finally, you overtly implied that my status as a CNA had something to do with my belief that “an alcoholic or drug user taking care of patients” was acceptable (which I never said) which is both derogatory and patronizing. Let’s leave it there.

I don’t think that being dismissive of or derogatory towards CNAs is going to make you many friends on these boards. I’ll reiterate—you don’t have any concrete information, by your own admission, of the specific circumstances that led to these students being dismissed—and even if you did, it’s simply not your call, and not your concern—so why stress about it? Also, if you’d bothered to read my header, you’d have seen that I’m currently a Nursing student, and I’ll have my RN license within the year. Best of luck with your program.

I’ve got a different take than most of the other commenters—I think these students may well deserve a second chance, and that it’s really none of your business. Further, it seems that you really don’t know enough about the circumstances leading to the dismissal of these students (which, for all you know, may have been extenuating) to be making absolutist judgements about their situation, and certainly not about their general worthiness to be nurses in the future. So, my advice? Focus on your own education, worry less about petty drama, and let the administrators do their jobs.

Strongly seconding what Rionir has said—they are completely right. It’s really unfortunate that learning how to learn isn’t prioritized in our education system. Plenty of people (scientists) have applied the scientific method to the learning process, and there are well-established methods you can use that will really help with retention, which is particularly important if you’re responsible for a lot of material, and your instructors aren’t helping to narrow your focus onto the stuff you need to study to pass your tests. If you’ve got the time and the inclination, I’d recommend a book called Make It Stick (it’s the first google result). If not, remember the RISE acronym: R is recall from memory. This means self-quizzing, basically. Recalling information directly from memory (with a not-too specific prompt) is far more effective than note-taking or re-reading or highlighting. Well-made flash cards require you to actively recall information, and are probably the best-known self-quizzing method (one of the only stereotypical study methods that is actually effective). I is interleaving: this might seem counterintuitive, but learning is strengthened if you weave in different subjects/material instead of focusing on one subject at a time. S is spaced recall—studying the same thing every day even after you’re familiar with it isn’t efficient and won’t strengthen neural pathways as much as if you wait awhile before reinforcing (there are programs like Anki flashcards built on this concept, as Rionir has already mentioned). E is for elaboration. This means connecting new concepts into your existing mental framework/knowledge base in a practical (often visual) way. If learning seems easy and comfortable, it’s not efficient or effective. Effortful learning results in better retention and better understanding. If you want more info on any of these concepts, Make It Stick is really a great read, and completely changed the way I study.