RNs!!!! Did you fail Any classes???

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. RNs, did you fail any of your nursing courses?

    • 174
      No, I passed them all the first time
    • 21
      Yes, I failed One course
    • 9
      Yes, I failed MORE than one course

109 members have participated

Given he Glut of threads I have encountered lately about people failing their nursing course once or multiple times, I decided to submit a poll. My main motivation stems from the obligatory post from someone responding to these threads with "Don't give up! I knew someone who failed 30 times, failed NCLEX 6 times and is the best nurse I know! Never give up on your dreeeeaams!!!!!!!!" (Insert sparkles, rainbows, and unicorns vomiting up glitter)

So ladies and gents, here's my question: Did you fail any of your nursing courses? To keep it as simple as possible, let's limit this particular poll to:

1. RNs

2. Only the actual nursing courses, not the science pre-reqs

3. Licensed RNs only please

I would certainly like to see variations of this, LPNs, the science courses, etc. But for now, lets limit it to the above

I think everyone's experiences are interesting.

Nursing school was relatively easy for me considering how immature, flakey (and spoiled) I was, and not remotely close to a brainiac. Same with passing the boards. And then there were the mature and/or non traditional students who had to work much harder at it.

Because it was easy didn't make me a better nurse, not out of the gate, I still had all of that immaturity, flakiness and spoiledness to overcome. And you know many of those who struggled initially performed better than me.

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Nope, didn't flunk any classes. I did fine in the class room, book work, etc. It was clinical's that killed me. I was so dumb and green, knew nothing about hospitals. I faked it through clinical for a few semesters but finally dropped out. (Note I wasn't kicked out.) I had no idea what I was doing.

I remember in a class the instructor saying something about some families and cultures think a hospital is where people go to die.....I thought....that is what I think! I remember my clinical instructor asking me what the Dr. had ordered in the patients chart. I had the deer in the headlights look of....what is a Dr. order, what chart.

Anyway the program kindly let me reapply the following semester and I did fine....well better, I was still a scared newby nurse but after about 5 years started to get the hang of it.:)

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Specializes in Med surg, Public Health, School Nursing.
I noticed that most of the posters have not failed any courses, I'll bet that for every one that never failed a course, there are 5 that did fail and just doesn't want to post it. It's easy to say "hey look at me, I have a 4.0 and never failed anything". I personally failed 1 prereq course and 1 nursing course and had to take NCLEX 2x's passed the second time in 75 questions. In my school you needed an 80 to pass a course. The course that I failed was in the first year and I failed by about 2-3 points. I was going to school full time, working part time and raising 2 toddlers, oh and I almost forgot- I had never been to college before and I was 40yrs old. I wish more people would post about failing and then picking themselves back up and succeeding. I don't have to be perfect and I'm still proud of every accomplishment!!!

I don't think anyone is trying to make others feel bad. I simply answered the question that was asked. I'm proud that I never failed any classes. Did I almost fail some nursing classes? Yes. Pharmacology kicked my butt and Med Surg II almost made me want to quit nursing school altogether. I was put on probation in clinical second semester and almost had a panic attack. I bombed quite a few exams during those two years. Did I fail any classes? No, I didn't. So when I say I didn't fail any courses I'm telling the truth and I'm seriously not bragging. Had the question been phrased differently you would have gotten a different answer. -shrugs-

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Graduated with a 3.8 GPA from RN school in a fast-track program, with 2 kids including one with constant medical issues, and became very sick myself at one point. Passed NCLEX with 75 questions.

Oh, and I have a mild learning disability, but I have learned to compensate over the years and double-up my efforts. Getting through nursing school was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Secondly only to having a child who was very sick and not being able to cure her with a magic wand or all the love in the world.

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Passed everything on the first try - lowest grade was a B-

Passed NCLEX on the first try with 75 questions (and in less than an hour!)

Plenty of people in my class would withdraw from classes before officially "failing" them, hence several people that started with me in 2011 (graduated 2013) are just NOW graduating since you have to wait a year to restart.

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Specializes in Tele, OB, public health.

okay, just to stress why I started this thread.....

While I would never claim that this poll is conclusive, my main point is this:

While it is possible to fail one, or even two classes and succeed as a nurse, it is very rare and not how things play out.

It may have nothing to do with someone's true aptitude for nursing, after all life happens, but in reality too many failures and most schools will not allow you to continue. Period.

It annoys the heck out of me when I see posters giving others false hopes. There was a recent thread where someone had failed out of a RN program twice, and yet there were still people saying "you can do it! Don't give up!" Despite the fact that in reality, I would be shocked if this person could find another program to take them

This is not helpful. Nor is it "mean" to say that "um, maybe you should pick a different path" I wish someone in that person's life had pulled her aside sooner and saved her a lot of time and money

I was attempting to illustrate that the vast majority of licensed RNs had few, if any failures.

No school allows people endless attempts at nursing classes, nor should they. No nursing program will admit a student who has flunked out of multiple programs or failed pre-reqs repeatedly.

It is complete disservice to aspiring nurses is we continue to pretend that there is an alternate reality where you can fail endless times and be allowed to continue.

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Nope no failed classes (passed one by the thinnest of skins though). I passed the NCLEX the first time too. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about multiple attempts to take it. I personally went to school with an awesome student. He rocked in clinicals, was wonderful with patients, and always asked the best questions. He failed the first time (Im not sure if he tried again) due to excessive test anxiety. He could keep his head in a code, but during a test not so much.

In short I'm not really sure that the NCLEX is the best judge of nursing ability. However, since it's not up to me and I don't have a better idea I try to keep my doubts to myself.

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I just realized I posted to a 2 year old thread. Why do these keep popping up like they are current?

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Specializes in Case manager, float pool, and more.

Passed all my classes. We had to have an average of 85% or better in our classes or we were let go from the program. Passed NCLEX-PN first go and passed NCLEX-RN first go. Now getting my MSN and so far, knock on wood I am passing and in good academic standing.

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