School Not Allowing Us to Take NCLEX

[JDS]

I know this might sound made up but it is the absolute truth.

To give this context, I am letting you know the school is on probation for low NCLEX success rate.

Last course to graduate is a course called Role Transition. Traditionally you work in an hospital for at least 140 hours. You take an exit exam and you are done. For my cohort., they added a 4 hour classroom instruction to this course with ATI testing weekly. In addition to the exit exam, two ATI comprehensive exams was required as well as Clinical Competency Exam. The first ATI exam was a predictor of NCLEX success. I passed with a 99% prediction to pass NCLEX. I scored 92% on the second ATI exam, one of 8 students out of over 90 until score was curved yielding about 20 students that passed. I also passed the exit exam and had 86.1% for the class, a B. I failed the CCE, this is another story in itself. Course syllabus stated if you failed ATI exams, you would go through 3 weeks of bootcamp.

3 weeks before graduation, we were told there would be no bootcamp for those that failed the ATI exams but 3 week NurseThink program (which is grueling) after which you take another exam and if you failed you would continue for another 3 weeks. I figured I was safe since I passed both exams. I would have to retake the CCE as a remediation. We were given incompletes and allowed to graduate and I attended the graduation ceremony.

School then decided that if you failed the CCE but passed the ATI exams, you would only need to participate in the NurseThink program but if you passed the ATI exams but failed CCE you would have to go through both NurseThink and retake CCE. So at this point ATI results show that I have 99% chance of passing NCLEX and I was one of 20 students to pass second ATI exam and I have already graduated but I have to now go into NurseThink and take another exam. This is clearly unfair. All e-mails to the school requesting meeting went unanswered. 3 weeks of NurseThink and we couldn't take exam because school server crashed, exam rescheduled.

School sends out e-mail that if remediation CCE is failed, a meeting will be held with student to decide the next course of action. Before we could take the rescheduled NurseThink exam, we did CCE exam and most of us failed again. We got an e-mail saying we would not be allowed to take the reschedule NurseThink exam and our grades changed to an F from Incomplete. All e-mails to school went unanswered. That was it. Seems the school is hellbent on putting forward the least number graduates for NCLEX to boost their success rate and get off probation and damn the students and consequences.

So after spending 52K and 20 months in school and graduating, I can't take NCLEX and the school is not responding. About 10 of us decided to hire a lawyer but the lawyer who had the most experience dealing with this school wants $385 from each student for consultation even though this would be a class action lawsuit if it moves forward and he would be meeting with us at the same time, so $3850 and you can see where this is going. There is something wrong with the NCLEX system if things like this is happening. Please advise.

[FiremedicMike, RN, EMT-P]

On 6/6/2022 at 7:29 AM, JDS said:

Right, multiple proctors, different for each element. All subjective. One of mine was on the phone for the whole element. Problem was CCE wasn't part of passing or failing the course. Syllabus says , 160 hours of hospital work, evaluation of nurse supervisor and clinical instructor. If you have all three in addition to passing the ATI comprehensive exams, you passed. 3 weeks to graduation, it changed to having to pass both exams and CCE.

For the sake of discussion - the bolded statement is critical to this topic.

You don't pass just because you did it, you pass because you did it and the instructor said you did it satisfactorily.  

In short, passing your CCE was on your syllabus as a requirement for graduation.

[JDS]

From syllabus:

Clinical performance is evaluated on a pass/fail basis. Students are expected to attend each clinical experience and perform activities in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct, Professional Practice Standards and Ethics, clinical evaluation tools, and course expectations. Clinical hours will be tracked by the student and clinical faculty. Evaluation of clinical performance is on-going by the clinical instructor, RN preceptor (if applicable), and student. End-of-clinical evaluation reflects passing achievement of professional behavior, knowledge, and skills. A clinical failure results in a failing grade for the course, regardless of the numeric score achieved in the didactic portion of the course.

Where is CCE factoring into grade?

[FiremedicMike, RN, EMT-P]

1 hour ago, JDS said:

From syllabus:

Clinical performance is evaluated on a pass/fail basis. Students are expected to attend each clinical experience and perform activities in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct, Professional Practice Standards and Ethics, clinical evaluation tools, and course expectations. Clinical hours will be tracked by the student and clinical faculty. Evaluation of clinical performance is on-going by the clinical instructor, RN preceptor (if applicable), and student. End-of-clinical evaluation reflects passing achievement of professional behavior, knowledge, and skills. A clinical failure results in a failing grade for the course, regardless of the numeric score achieved in the didactic portion of the course.

Where is CCE factoring into grade?

CCE isn't mentioned in the single paragraph of your syllabus that you decided to cut and paste.

There's zero point in trying to debate this with you any further.  You claim you were blind sided by a CCE exam that you didn't know was coming, failed it, can't test, and feel that's unfair.  I'm skeptical that this is what actually occurred, but readily admit that many parts of nursing school are disorganized.  I've not read your syllabus, I wasn't in your class, I didn't take this CCE, but I strongly feel it's more likely than not that the expectation of passing the CCE for your class was made known well before the day that you found out you failed it.

Sorry you're going through this.

[JDS]

It was mentioned as an exercise in Week 6 of the calendar as one of the weekly assignments. You don't have to believe as I know it's hard to do in this circumstance. It was not even listed on the class work grading scheme. It was not a requirement to pass or fail the class according to the syllabus, which is my point.

The comprehensive exams (below) are clearly spelled out and is part of the grading scheme in addition to the clinical requirements I posted earlier.

Comprehensive Exam # 1—minimum of 71.3% score (10% weight) ▪ Comprehensive Exam # 2—minimum of 75 % score (20% weight) If either score is less than described above, student will receive an incomplete for the Role Transition Course and be enrolled in the Bootcamp for NCLEX Success program. When successful completion of this course is accomplished, students will receive a letter grade for the course and proceed to plan for taking NCLEX exam
 

[FiremedicMike, RN, EMT-P]

32 minutes ago, JDS said:

It was mentioned as an exercise in Week 6 of the calendar as one of the weekly assignments. You don't have to believe as I know it's hard to do in this circumstance. It was not even listed on the class work grading scheme. It was not a requirement to pass or fail the class according to the syllabus, which is my point.

The comprehensive exams (below) are clearly spelled out and is part of the grading scheme in addition to the clinical requirements I posted earlier.

Comprehensive Exam # 1—minimum of 71.3% score (10% weight) ▪ Comprehensive Exam # 2—minimum of 75 % score (20% weight) If either score is less than described above, student will receive an incomplete for the Role Transition Course and be enrolled in the Bootcamp for NCLEX Success program. When successful completion of this course is accomplished, students will receive a letter grade for the course and proceed to plan for taking NCLEX exam
 

Do you have the opportunity to retake and pass this CCE?
 

[londonflo]

3 hours ago, JDS said:

When successful completion of this course is accomplished, students will receive a letter grade for the course and proceed to plan for taking NCLEX exam

This is odd wording for me. Why not use the term 'graduate'?

[londonflo]

On 5/21/2022 at 9:53 AM, JDS said:

. Seems the school is hellbent on putting forward the least number graduates for NCLEX to boost their success rate and get off probation and damn the students and consequences.

I re read your thread from the beginning and I think you are very right. I still can't understand why the school let you participate in graduation but then changed your 'incomplete' to an 'F'. 

You mentioned they are not answering emails requesting a meeting. Are you not on a campus or at least a physical facility? 

I honestly feel for you. You did what they required and did it in good faith that you would be eligible to take NCLEX after meeting the program requirements. Courts are usually hesitant to get involved with determining competency for students who fail a course but I think in this case...your only route for satisfaction may be a lawsuit.

[JDS]

Because graduation means nothing. Like I said it's about gaming the NCLEX system. Except for those who actually did not get the required C grade or average 75% across exams, everyone was allowed to graduate and attend the graduation ceremony. So you now have graduates who are not being allowed to take the NCLEX. Get this. graduates who had their grades changed to an F after failing CCE twice are kicked out of the program, if they had failed a class before during the whole program. Keep in mind that if you failed a class you are given the chance to retake the class. So you now have graduates being kicked out of the program, after graduation, for failing twice. Once for the class they passed on the second try and once for failing CCE which wasn't part of the grading rubric for the class. Yeah, it's that unbelievable.

[londonflo]

1 minute ago, JDS said:

Keep in mind that if you failed a class you are given the chance to retake the class. So you now have graduates being kicked out of the program, after graduation, for failing twice

Failing 2 classes (even though the first failure is repeated with a passing grade) is usual in most programs. 

Was this a mostly online school with periodic clinicals you had to travel to?

[203bravo, MSN, APRN]

On 6/6/2022 at 5:44 PM, JDS said:

everyone was allowed to graduate

I'm confused --- were you awarded a degree? or are you simply referring to the ceremony where your names are called and you walk across a stage to receive the case you will eventually place your diploma in?

 

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

The more I read the less sense this makes. How can a school fail students after they graduate? I've never heard of a school, any school not just nursing, that allows students to graduate but then changes their mind and fails the student after the fact. 

As far as I knew passing all required classes and gaining the number of credits needed for that degree prior to graduation is necessary to graduate.  All credits required for graduation must be completed with passing grades before a student is a graduate. I've never heard of any scenario where a school allows students to graduate and then says, nope sorry, you didn't actually graduate, in fact you failed.  If this is what's happened there what the heck kind of school is this? 

[chare]

3 hours ago, kbrn2002 said:

The more I read the less sense this makes. How can a school fail students after they graduate? I've never heard of a school, any school not just nursing, that allows students to graduate but then changes their mind and fails the student after the fact. 

[...]

I don't think the OP graduated.  Rather, it seems that he was given an incomplete and allowed to participate in the commencement ceremony and his degree would be conferred when he or she met all graduation requirements.

On 5/21/2022 at 10:53 AM, JDS said:

[...]

... We were given incompletes and allowed to graduate and I attended the graduation ceremony.

[...]