snowwhite2002

Thanks.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

I failed my last semester of the nursing program 5 mos ago. I never had a fail until then so I still had one more try. I just needed a break and just so happened that I found out I was pregnant in January, so maybe it was fate. I've followed my ex classmates journey a second time through this semester, considering 15 people were in the same situation. Some went on to fail a second time and about half will be graduating May 9. I am so happy for them and sometimes second guess my decision to take a break. I was told that I was eligible to take the NCLEX-PN in December, but I'm not sure if I'm still eligible since it has been 5 mos. Considering I just set up a payment plan of $173/ mo for the next 10 years to repay my Stafford School Loans I really want to do something with all the time and effort. I know it will be hard working full time now and having a new born, but I want to try. Really, the whole time everyone suggested to quit my job during school, but I will be 100% vested in my pension with 20 years worked by Nov 2016, so until then I don't want to leave. If I can even work 2 days a week I figure I can keep a LPN license active and eventually transition back into a RN program. Just don't want give up my goals. Anybody want to share their struggle to give this girl some hope....

I have officially failed clinical in the last semester of the ADN program and I am so bummed. I feel like I have put so much time and effort and to watch all the others that have shared my journey over the past 18 months beaming as they order their graduation pins is so upsetting. I am happy for them, but just a bit ******. I have rationalized this whole mess as that I am just not ready to move forward. Since this is my first fail, I can retake the course, but I don't want to. Two of the three instructors are just plain rude and demeaning and really bully their students. I made a mistake at the beginning of the semester when I didn't notify my primary nurse about a pulse ox of 88 immediately. I couldn't find her and started to document my am note when she walked by and I told her and my instructor flipped. The patient was sleeping and was not in distress, but still I should have been more proactive. She was literally on me from there on. What are doing? Why? Have you done this? Why? I agree I made mistakes and I learned from them. I also agree that I'm not ready to move forward. I guess I also feel like other students that had Ms. X who passes all her students are at the same level as me and will be graduating this month. I feel I might as well be held back now then get out there and loose my first job or license because I'm not there yet. It sucks!!!! I think I'm just going to go for the LPN and then maybe transition in later. One thing my teacher said that has really gotten me upset. As she is going over my options and shows me how to reapply. She says, "Do you know any really smart high school students, we really need to get some smart high school students into this program". What is she telling me I am too old or too dumb. Where there is a will, there is a way!!!!! I'm still breathing.....Thanks you guys again for the support through this crazy past 2 years.

Some of this may seem common sense, but I learned the hard way 1. Anytime your patient has any vital sign outside of the norm immediately relay this information to the primary nurse. If you can't find her. Call her phone. 2. Don't ever touch a pill. Find a way to split w/o touching. Your instructor may be different, but we weren't to touch even while wearing gloves. 3. Know your meds. Make sure to look them up, know how they work and if it will affect the patient's blood pressure you better have that value handy when getting ready to give it. 4. Put on those gloves. Do touch anything w/o those gloves on. One in our group grabbed the urinal w/o them and got a U. 5. Make sure you are aware of the indicator for contact precautions. At our facility it was on the door. A girl in our grp walked in the doorway to take shift change report and got a U. Do not take your stethoscope or paperwork in the room. We would put ours in the breakroom. 6. When you go for orientation on the unit. Get a map or make your own. Very important where the soiled utility, clean utility, linens, etc. are located. My instructor would give NI's for not knowing the unit. 7. If your patient has a mastectomy or shunt. Do not take Blood Pressure reading on that side. There will usually be signs on the door or above the patient's bed. Make sure to look. 8. When changing bed linens make sure you have a trash or laundry bag in room to put the dirty linens in. Don't put on floor, Don't hold near body. 9. Saline flushes should be disposed of in the biohazard receptacle. You can squirt any remaining fluid since the hosp does get charged by the pound. I was told that housekeeping may mistake them as needles. 10. Get help with bathing total care patients. Don't try to do it alone. 11. Do not hang anything attached to the patient to a side rail. Hang it on the framing of the bed. (Foley Cath) 12. When transporting a patient in a wheelchair, always back into door ways elevators as to not knock the patients feet or legs. Right now I can't think of anything else. But would love to hear anything that you learned in clinical or that you heard someone getting a bad mark for doing.

I agree. It would be so much easier and I definitely think I would be getting more out of it if I could do the careplan at home or have time to use the book there. She said that here clinicals are not run that way. I think she is trying to get us ready for dealing with a workload of 5-7 patients when we get out on the floor. You really run the whole 6 hours and chart on paper as you go. A little here a little there. OH, and I forgot we do a morning and closing note on all 5 patients also and we write them on paper and then have to get them signed of before entering them into the system. I struggle to get it all done and then by the time I get to start jotting down a careplan it is pretty rushed. And yes, I have to pull it from my brain so I need to memorize some good dx's. Thank goodness we only have 2 of these left. You guys, we have 43 people and only 16 people passed the last test. We started with 46 and so far it looks like the graduating class with be about 20. So nuts.

I appreciate your honest evaluation of my situation!!! I was not aware that the nursing dx had to be Nanda approved. We aren't allowed to bring books to clinical, but maybe I can memorize some of them.

Thanks for everyone's input. I had no idea it was so fast paced in a nursing home. I love the elderly, but I don't want to work 12 hours w/o time to take a break, that doesn't even sound healthy. I hate that people have to be pushed so hard. Why does everything have to be on high speed. I was at clinical the other day and my nurse had 8pts on a med surg floor. That is just ridiculous. I don't know how these nurses do it. Are there any fields in nursing where you don't run around for 12 hours trying to do the job of two people?

Thanks so much for the responses in the past. Your posts have brought me to tears just knowing I am not alone and that others have struggled and went on to accomplish there goals. I am so grateful. 2 more clinicals left and I am so happy. I basically have 1 S in Critical Thinking for the whole semester (8 clinicals). Last week she actually gave me my 3rd and final U on my paperwork because I didn't finish it all w/in the 6hr clinical. In 6hrs we are expected to do assesments, 2 sets of vitals, I & O' s on 5 patients (to be handed in written on forms), AM care (baths and linen change) for all 5. Then on one we are to pull and EKG strip and interpret, prepare a care plan on one with 4 nursing dx's, and write down pertinent medicines and lab values and how they pertain to the patients disease. Then two people a week also give meds for the day and any procedures needed (dressing change, iv starts). So last week I had medications and a dressing change that took 45min w/ the aid of the instructor and another student. So of course this pushed me back by at least an hour/hour and half. She gives me a U for being late with paperwork. So basically I've failed, but she doesn't tell me to go home. She gives me a load of 5 patients for the day So I'm kinda baffled that she didn't send me home, but I just sucked it up and did my work. I finished up on time and I had one of my better weeks, but I didn't have meds and any procedures for the day. I also just learned that we can delegate baths to the CNAs if we need help. If I had only known that last week. Really seems like this teacher wobbles back on forth on what is acceptable. Anyway I am the only one still doing the careplans. I asked a fellow student if I could use her old ones to study. What is really getting up under my skin is that one week I got a NI for using Altered Mental Status for one of my dxs and she wrote, "you can not use this because it is a medical dx". My fellow student had use the same dx and got a S with no comments. What the heck? I also use one week, Decreased CO r/t COPD e/b low blood pressure. Is this no good?Another week I put Sensory Deprivation r/t extended hospital stay with the assessment of patient has been in the hospital for 2 weeks. She said that the assessment data was weak. A student said to me the other day, "I don't know why she gives you so much trouble. She really seems to be harder on you than the rest of us". Regardless, I know I have a lot to learn. I have a 73 in lecture with one more test and a final to go. It is so going to suck if I pull up my lecture average and then fail for clinical. Does anybody come back to finish last semester after failing clinical?

I am a 5th semester nursing student in the ADN program. I have made a series of mistakes this semester. Personally I don't want to relive them so I am not going into detail, but after much reflection I am really debating if I am capable of this job. I have also wondered if maybe I possibly had ADHD. I went to the doctor three weeks ago and I was told by the physician that I was probably just stressed since ADHD is not something you get when your older, you had to be dx when you were a child. Told me, "You know kids are abusing that stuff" and "just because you take a quiz in magazine does not mean you are ADHD". I am not a kid and I didn't take any quiz. He refers me to a psychologist who has canceled on me twice now due to her own personal issues (her father is sick). So now what do I do? Last week I entered VS for Patient A in Patient B's file. The nurse caught it first and told me to correct it. I tried, but Meditech can not be updated when the information was sent from the capsule neuron. I think what I did was turn off the dynamap before sending the vitals to the capsule, then when I was manually typing them in from my handwritten values I input the wrong set. The nurse was aware of the mistake. I did not tell the instructor. She is extremely intimidating. Every student in her group is in agony. I had just been reprimanded that morning for not getting morning report from my nurse. My nurse for the day was Dana. There is a nurse with a name badge that reads Candy, but goes by Danny (I thought she went by Dana). So I'm standing there right near my rooms waiting for who I thought was Dana to make her way over there to get report. So my teacher asks, "What are you waiting on". Reply: pointing to Danny, "To get report from Dana". Well of course Danny says, "I'm not Dana". So I look like a complete idiot. Then I find Dana and ask, "Have you already gotten morning report." She says "Yes". My teacher was not pleased. I never saw Dana go to my pts rooms. So I'm guessing she got report somewhere other then the nursing station and my pts rooms. So my teacher says "You just stood there by your rooms wasting time when you should have been searching for your nurse for the day." Well heck I thought I was watching my nurse for the day while I filled out the basic info on my assessment sheet and researched the charts of my pts for the day. Anyway. Series of mistakes. Researched when I got home. Not sure why I'm missing things, most likely going from 2pt a day to 5. I just can't keep up. I'm rushing to get it done and I'm making mistakes. Everyone is telling me, don't quit now. You can always work in a doctor's office where it is no so fast paced. What are your thoughts/suggestions. Maybe I just don't have the aptitude for this field

I am in my last semester for the RN program. I have been struggling and have some bad marks in clinical for not being able to keep up with the pace. I might just need more practice. I have really been thinking I want to work in a nursing home. I don't have any time to spend one on one with the patients like I would like in the hospital. Would you recommend getting my LPN, which I can test for now or stick it out and maybe even have to redo this semester. I see jobs in my area online now for LPNs in a nursing home nearby. I guess I'm basically asking if I fail this semester would you recommend taking it over or just testing for the LPN and going for a job?

Umbdude explains it perfectly. I have struggled with everything she has mentioned at some point along my journey. The first few semesters were tough because I was completely new to the environment and learning to deal with nurses and talk to patients. Being a CNA or NA would have prepared me. Now I am struggling with the workload and time management, which I feel like the CNA or NA position would have provided this much needed experience. Just all together being familiar with the schedule and flow of the hospital. I think every school should require so many volunteer hours before even accepting applications. Students need to be exposed before they are performing duties in front of instructors. If you are someone that does get nervous when being graded, this is gonna make your life easier.

Well today my first day back. The teacher printed us all our own Kardex's and gave them out. I really got the feeling she was trying to offer more help. Maybe she realized we all needed a bit more help. We had 4 patients today. No one in any other clinical group has that many. One group get 2 (They are in PACU) and another get 1 (Telemetry). We do morning/closing notes, Vitals, AM care, Fingersticks, fill out Assessment forms for all pts, write down medications and diagnostics and do a care plan for one patient in 6 hours. I just can't seem to get it all done and change all the bed and do baths. I try to prioritize, but something always get neglected to get the paperwork done. I really want to work somewhere where I actually get to talk the patient and put lotion on them, brush their hair. Make sure they are taken care of the way I would want to at that age. Where can I do this for a living? My teacher is basically letting me come along for the ride for now, unless of course I have a major safety issue. My poor friend walked into one of her patients rooms today that was on isolation precautions without the gown and got her first U. She was devastated. I told her to take deep breaths and try to let it go. That getting upset was only going to sabotage the rest of her day. She pulled it together and finished off the day without any other incident. She is like me, gets nervous under pressure. About 4 of us have been staying after clinical for lunch to share our day and get advice. The one girl, who has only had a few NIs for paperwork said that when everything is said and done she is going to our teacher to let her know that the way she has been treating her students is just not right. That people can not learn when trying to be motivated by fear. I have my first preceptor experience tomorrow. Everyone has said how much they have loved it, I hope I feel the same way. Sidenote ---- My evaluation form is so marked up with U's and NI's, it is a rather sad thing. Everyone in clinical is like I got one NI or two and sit over their like, stop your complaining.....lol

I can't tell you how badly I wish I would have known this before I started Nursing School. Please if you want to become a RN, go get your CNA and work in the field for a while before enrolling in the program. If you have no medical background please take the time to get your feet wet before you jump in the deep end with no floaties. It is going to prepare you and really give you an advantage in the RN program. I just don't want anyone else to struggle like I am. It will be worth the time and your life will so much less stressful!!!!!

Oh and 2 Us in the same area or 3 Total are grounds for failure.

Well, the instructor gave me 2 Us. One in Safety and One in Critical Thinking. I already have 2 NI's in Critical Thinking and I have been hearing that 3 NI's in the same field will become a U, but I really need to clarify that with my instructor. One thing I didn't really like that she wrote in my review was in clinical I told her when I get corrected on something it seems to lock in my brain and I learn from it. She writes, "Student states that she doesn't learn until she makes a mistake". It sound so ridiculous I didn't even bother to argue it. Tomorrow is my first day back to clinical since my 2 U performance last week. I just can't bring myself to give up eventhough I kinda want to. I'm just taking it one day a time at this point.

I'm headed into school talk to my clinical instructor about my poor clinical performance. I have never have been really proficient at getting my point across the way I really want to, but I'm going to leave it in the hands of God. I did not cry when my instructor told me that She wouldn't want me as her nurse and I feel like this is a major improvement for me. I am learning to take criticism, even if in my opinion it is a bit harsh, and not breakdown. This to me means my confidence is getting better. It is all a learning experience no matter what happens today, I have grown, I have experienced and I am a stronger person for it. I'm not going to argue with her even if she says something I don't agree with. I will stand my ground the best I can, and ask for the support and encouragement I believe every student deserves. Wish me Luck!!!

A U is for Unsatisfactory and Two of them is immediate dismissal from the program. Basically after the teacher told me that she has not had this level of incompetence with her other students, I'm just wondering if continuing on at this point is going to make any difference. A U is huge in clinicals and the advice she gave me that I just wasn't at the level I needed to be at just has deflated any confidence I had. I have not gotten out of bed all day today and just want to cry. On top of it all my husband got fired from his job on Monday and we only have enough banked to stay afloat for 2 or 3 mos. He told me that I am too dumb to be a nurse and is very upset that I have sattled us with so much debt for nothing. My friends say that I am smart, but I just go blank under pressure. I'm just wondering if I should withdraw from the program and try something else later when things are going better at home.

I'm a 5th (last) semester nursing student going for my ADN. Yesterday in clinical I made a huge mistake that landed me with my first U. My teacher got me for two incidences. First I was doing med pass. I knew my meds and did all my checks. The instructor asked if my pt had water. I said I wasn't sure. She said you better get some. This is our third week on the floor and I couldn't remember which side of the hall the nutrition room was on so I asked. She said I should know that by now. It takes me a while to get oriented. I get confused about what side of the hall the clean utility, soiled utility and nutrition room are sometimes. I asked the other students after clinical if they ever experienced the same issue and most of them said yes. They would have probably just tried to play it off better. So next thing was a biggie. I was removing an old IV for a patient that was being discharged. She was on Lovenox and I didn't expect her to bleed so much. So I needed more gauze since the ones I had were soiling through. I asked her to put pressure on the gauze so I could run to the supply room and get more. I met my teacher in the hallway and I just panicked. I was not so sure if I should have left the pt to get more supplies. She was Alert and Oriented, but I just wasn't sure. Anyway the teacher walks in my room. I am following her just waiting to get in trouble. I walked over to the pt and picked up the gauze to see if she was still bleeding and realized I had forgotten to don a new pair of gloves. Some blood had seeped through the top layer of gauze. I immediately went over to the sink and washed my hands. The teacher gave me a U for safety for not being oriented to the floor and not donning gloves. I personally was freaked out a bit myself about the no gloves and I do believe my awareness has been reinforced by the whole experience. The teacher asked me to stay after clinical. She said that she was sorry if no other teacher had not pointed my unsafe practices out to me, but she wouldn't want me as a nurse and that I am not where I need to be for a last semester student. What should I do? I have $15,000 in school loans and two years of hard worked invested. Is there another path I should consider or is there hope for me? I love both the elderly and skin care. I would love to work for a Dermatologist or Plastic Surgeon. I also love to take care of elderly patients, but I know as a hospital nurse I could never give them the kind of one on one time I would like. I definitely know hospital nursing is not for me. Any suggestions? I also heard this teacher gave a student a U for wearing a scrub shirt that was too big. Yikes. That was harsh.