"Due to health problems..."

Emergent, RN · May 30, 2016

I guess you'd have to walk awhile in their moccasins to find out, eh?

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · May 30, 2016

As someone who completed a portion of my schooling with active "health problems" due to being shot seven times and having PTSD, if someone has a health problem, yes, it can be a struggle; some have stronger resiliency and some may not be in that journey yet.

People thinking health problems are BS, to me, is offensive, especially if you are not enduring with constant pain or anxiety of the day to day struggle to survive. :no:

Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN · May 30, 2016

It's definitely possible, although if you're not healthy enough to succeed in school you may not be healthy enough to do the job you're training for. I failed a clinical for being absent too many times. All I had to do was show up and I just couldn't get out of bed!! A simple bad cold/flu took me out.

Editorial Team / Moderator · May 30, 2016

As someone who completed a portion of my schooling with active "health problems" due to being shot seven times and having PTSD

Good gravy! I had no idea. *hugs*

I do my very best to not judge others because I have no idea what they're going through, or what they've endured. (I say this even after a decade plus of dealing with ER patients, yep.) Every day the only person I want to be better than is myself, yesterday. Trite? Maybe. But there it is.

And that's why I like this: "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." â€” Dalai Lama

Boomer MS, RN · May 30, 2016

As someone who completed a portion of my schooling with active "health problems" due to being shot seven times and having PTSD, if someone has a health problem, yes, it can be a struggle; some have stronger resiliency and some may not be in that journey yet.
People thinking health problems are BS, to me, is offensive, especially if you are not enduring with constant pain or anxiety of the day to day struggle to survive.

Geez....We often don't know what others are going through or have been through, do we? I cannot imagine what those experiences were like to endure.

My favorite quote: "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." ____ Aesop

verene, MSN · May 30, 2016

Health problems is a general statement. You have no idea how minor or serious those health problems are. It could be a minor as being knocked down with the flu for a month and struggling to pass exams because of low energy, or as serious as recovering from a motorcycle accident and having to take a quarter or more off from school, as hidden as developing a mental illness, or as visible as a broken leg. While some people may use this as an excuse, there are many "hidden" illnesses and health conditions that can steal away physical and emotional energy, I have no way of knowing which it is unless I know the individual extremely well. Having "hidden" health conditions myself, I tend to accept other's explanations of "health issues" with out prying for details.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · May 30, 2016

I was diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease at age 17, in 1998. Therefore, I have lived all my adult life with a chronic health problem that has affected my performance at times.

I've simply kept pushing through this issue by utilizing coping skills and resilience.

However, I realize that not everyone has a fully equipped personal toolbox of coping mechanisms, so I cannot fault them if a health problem devastates them.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · May 30, 2016

Last fall, I lost my baby. It was devastating to me physically and mentally as it took my body months to return to normal and honestly, as my due date had gotten closer and closer, I struggled mentally. It was hard. I was in OB when it happened so it was doubly hard.

I missed clinical that day as I was in the ER. I was not allowed to make the hours up. I had a test the following week that I did poorly on. I don't know if you consider that an excuse for a poor test grade. I kind of thought it was myself.

Zyprexa_Ho · May 30, 2016

There may be people who do use it as an excuse, but the bottom line is that statement is so general we really don't know.

DiscGolfNurse, BSN · May 31, 2016

Regardless if it is a cop-out or not, we are not here to judge. We are here to offer advice and encouragement to each other. The truth is we often do not know what it is like to be in that person's shoes and deal with that illness. A majority of the time we do not even know that a person is struggling due to the fear of being labeled "unprepared" or "laxy".

This can be translated into our patient care as well. A simple example, when a patient states they are in pain. With some patients you have to medicate a 3, others you do not. Or a patients 6 may be different than another patients 6, it is subjective.

Health problems may very well be the reason someone struggled academically but we are not to judge. If it is a cop-out, those people tend to be weeded out or struggle in the work force for not being prepared. If you are not prepared, whether due to health issues or not, it catches up to you eventually.

benegesserit · May 31, 2016

I don't want to be misunderstood - I recognize that long-term health problems can affect work and school, but do people too often use this as a cop-out excuse for their lack of preparation?

During one of my prerequisite classes, I got a cold the weekend before a test. The day of the test, I woke up with a slight earache, which progressed rapidly until my eardrum ruptured less than 12 hours later - in the middle of the test.

So, I had suboptimal (though not impossible) study conditions leading up to the test, and incredible pain during the test. For context, I've had multiple natural births and twice went to work with untreated broken bones - I have a reasonably high pain tolerance. This was truly bad. I was also clearly sick enough that it may have interfered with my thought processes.

I got a 27% on that test, and this was enough to bring down my overall grade a whole letter grade. If If I'd failed the test by a narrower margin (say, 55%), I would have gotten an A in the class. And this was one of the science prerequisites, so that one ear infection had a very real potential to impact my ability to get into nursing school.

It's not the whole story. If I'd studied more diligently before the cold hit, perhaps my baseline knowledge would have been high enough that I'd have done better despite the illness. Or maybe I could have tried a bit harder and made up those points elsewhere. But I think the fact that I did so poorly on a single test when I otherwise had the potential for an A in the class indicates that the health problem was more than just a cop-out.