Seeking Advice! Failed 2-Year Program. Now What?

On 5/22/2021 at 1:25 PM, FiremedicMike said:

With all due respect, if you weren’t a nursing student when covid hit, then I don’t think it’s fair for you to make that statement.

Covid tossed a huge wrench into the system and nursing programs had tow scramble to recreate content into an online format, figure out what to do about clinical, and figure out how to evaluate lab skills.   
 

To say it can’t be considered as a factor is disingenuous at best.

And technically colleges or NCLEX can't give a 'practice test' on learning skills, if you're a visual learner or hands on. During the pandemic, the students had to adjust to being online without hands on skills. And how many students were available for meetings to study with? He/she can maybe use social distancing as a CDC guideline and maybe appeal to the regular college as well. 

5 hours ago, neuron said:

And technically colleges or NCLEX can't give a 'practice test' on learning skills, if you're a visual learner or hands on. During the pandemic, the students had to adjust to being online without hands on skills. And how many students were available for meetings to study with? He/she can maybe use social distancing as a CDC guideline and maybe appeal to the regular college as well. 

 

 

 

And don't forget, a good clinical curriculum/instructor is exactly the place where skills and theory learned in the classroom that week are put to practice, helping students actually digest, understand, and internalize the material.

This doesn't happen when clinical is a 45 minute zoom call, doing a "case study" that really revolves more around trying to figure out how to fill out the fake EMR so that we can hit the "next" button and finally complete it.

On 5/21/2021 at 4:37 PM, AliceBack2It said:

Our program weeds out people that they don’t think will pass the NCLEX to manipulate their pass rates. I’m interested in seeing the statistics for 2021, as our graduating class got cheated out of many important learning experiences and the faculty was just a bunch of lazy millennials who wanted extra income. Also, they require some intensive ATI virtual program to supplement their poor teaching so that ATI can help bulk up their pass rates. Such a scam.

I'm baffled by this whole statement. Nursing school is a lead-up to the NCLEX. Why is it so bizarre that students who will likely not succeed get weeded out? 

My program also used ATI. It was great as study material and helped supplement what we learned in class. ATI was harder than the courses itself and I feel ultimately that extra work did help me pass my NCLEX. 

Upthread you said that the teachers only assigned you readings and that was the extent of the education. ATI is an entire extra resource that condenses the class material into the key parts and provides practice questions to help you retain it. Additional resources to help you succeed are not a scam, and it seems like you're letting your own shortcomings color what sounds like a standard community college nursing program. 

4 hours ago, FiremedicMike said:

And don't forget, a good clinical curriculum/instructor is exactly the place where skills and theory learned in the classroom that week are put to practice, helping students actually digest, understand, and internalize the material.

This doesn't happen when clinical is a 45 minute zoom call, doing a "case study" that really revolves more around trying to figure out how to fill out the fake EMR so that we can hit the "next" button and finally complete it.

This is why I am asking" How would you have dealt with the Covid effect on clinicals.?" It is so easy to complain about what WAS implemented in a week's notice. No body knew this was going to happen.....If "you" in the future were teaching when a lockdown happened, what would you do:

1. Close the school and postpone graduation
2. Stop accepting applications, cancel those in the pipeline
3. Convert to some form of online case studies, learning activities so that students could graduate on time
4. Add more simulation activities but decrease the number of students present each time
5. Just pass those who were close to graduation

47 minutes ago, londonflo said:

This is why I am asking" How would you have dealt with the Covid effect on clinicals.?" It is so easy to complain about what WAS implemented in a week's notice. No body knew this was going to happen.....If "you" in the future were teaching when a lockdown happened, what would you do:

1. Close the school and postpone graduation
2. Stop accepting applications, cancel those in the pipeline
3. Convert to some form of online case studies, learning activities so that students could graduate on time
4. Add more simulation activities but decrease the number of students present each time
5. Just pass those who were close to graduation

Well I don’t specifically know, but I think the big issue which I mentioned in your other thread, is that programs (my program at least) kept the same cut throat, strict pass fail, no points for second place grading mentality.  I’m not saying pass dramatic failures, but when you have a student who is/was doing well who all of a sudden is struggling, don’t say “so sorry, the rules of engagement are the same, peace out”.

1 hour ago, Tacocat said:

I'm baffled by this whole statement. Nursing school is a lead-up to the NCLEX. Why is it so bizarre that students who will likely not succeed get weeded out? 

My program also used ATI. It was great as study material and helped supplement what we learned in class. ATI was harder than the courses itself and I feel ultimately that extra work did help me pass my NCLEX. 

Upthread you said that the teachers only assigned you readings and that was the extent of the education. ATI is an entire extra resource that condenses the class material into the key parts and provides practice questions to help you retain it. Additional resources to help you succeed are not a scam, and it seems like you're letting your own shortcomings color what sounds like a standard community college nursing program. 

No. Everyone in the program struggled. That is an indication the structure of the curriculum was subpar. 

Also, I’m not complaining about courses moving to remote learning right after the pandemic. I fully understand that it was something no one expected and the instructors had to come up with new ways to conduct the courses. However, this wasn’t RIGHT AFTER. This was 300 days later, in our final semester. Our mental health clinical was a Zoom meeting. There was NO LOGIC REASON for that. Also, there were no lectures when that could’ve easily been done through recordings. 

You seem to making excuses for lazy educators. Are you one? 

21 hours ago, AliceBack2It said:

You seem to making excuses for lazy educators. Are you one? 

No. I was a second career nursing student and at 31 I finished my nursing program and graduated last year in the height of the pandemic. 

1 hour ago, Tacocat said:

No. I was a second career nursing student and at 31 I finished my nursing program and graduated last year in the height of the pandemic. 

Accelerated nursing programs are not the same as associate two-year community college programs. I would expect a bachelors level accelerated program to provide their students with a higher quality education. I don’t know where you went but around here if it is at a private institution can run upwards of $70,000 You’re comparing apples and oranges. My experience was subpar. Yours probably wasn’t. 

12 minutes ago, AliceBack2It said:

Accelerated nursing programs are not the same as associate two-year community college programs. I would expect a bachelors level accelerated program to provide their students with a higher quality education. I don’t know where you went but around here if it is at a private institution can run upwards of $70,000 You’re comparing apples and oranges. My experience was subpar. Yours probably wasn’t. 

I went the community college route because it was less expensive. I didn't do an accelerated program. 

29 minutes ago, Tacocat said:

I went the community college route because it was less expensive. I didn't do an accelerated program. 

Well, good for you. I misunderstood when you said second career. I thought you meant second degree. However, you got to experience almost your entire program before the pandemic. The schools closed in March. You had to change to remote half way through your final semester. I had 2.5/4 semesters remote. My final year, which I think is the toughest, was a total wash. 

Was the education subpar, or were you just not focused? If you withdrew the first time, maybe it would have been best to apply elsewhere then. In hindsight, you made bad mistakes all around. Also, if you were getting above a 3.0 but felt the program was horrible, what did you do to seek help prior to the pandemic? During the pandemic? If you were struggling, were your professors available via email, zoom, phone, text, etc? It's not all the school's fault because everyone was affected, not just you. Some people don't learn well online only and if that's the case, you should have relayed that to the school.

Having said all that, I would try to have a conversation with them and explain the online-only situation. Most schools are understanding of the circumstances and foregoing failure policies to allow students to repeat. Maybe your school is willing to do the same. However, you can't go in with the mindset it's all their fault and project an attitude or animosity. Good luck to you.

1 hour ago, AliceBack2It said:

I would expect a bachelors level accelerated program to provide their students with a higher quality education.

I am curious about how you would define a "higher quality education"?

NCLEX results? I am interested in your thoughts on this.

Here is a study on the difference between NCLEX rates of an accelerated program and an associate program.

https://www.nursingcenter.com/journalarticle?Article_ID=818370&Journal_ID=54020&Issue_ID=818306#:~:text=One study compared the performance,and a traditional nursing program.&text=The accelerated students performed better,with a 70% success rate.

Quote

Results

NCLEX-RN Success

Although students in the accelerated program have a higher passing rate (92.3%) than the traditional students (89.5%), there was no statistically significant difference in the NCLEX-RN pass rates for the 2 groups ([chi]2 = 0.347, P = .388).