Should Our Study Group Allow a Failing Student to Join?

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I am in a study group with 2 friends I have known and taken classes with for over a year. The 3 of us are all A/B students, come prepared, text each other during the week if we are confused about something, etc. We've become a tight knit group because we know we help instead of hindering.

There is a student who is currently failing A&P 2 who wants to join our study group. All 3 of us are leery about it. She comes to class late, she asks us to send her recordings, she looks at my notes everyday. If she put forth the effort herself we wouldn't mind trying to help her, but we feel like she just wants to ride our backs and we're not cool with that.

Our school has a science resource center she can go to, we have free one on one tutors, and the library has models she can check out for 2 hours at a time to study. There are ways for her to help herself before we help her.

I've worked my butt off to get where I am. I should be hearing if I am accepted to my program in 3 weeks. I am not going to get dragged down by someone who can't do the work themselves.

How horrible are we?

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Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

I don't think you're horrible. It's right to self-protect. If you don't care for yourself, who will?

A poor student can keep you from being able to do what you need to do, since you'll be spending lots of time helping her, even if she starts putting in effort to catch up. Since it seems she's sponged off of you before, she'll probably expect to do that as part of the group. That's just not fair to you, and you'll become more and more angry about it.

Quit letting her have your recordings and notes. She can make her own. As you wrote, there are services who can help her other than you and your study group.

It's better to prevent the problem from escalating than to let it continue to fester...

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

Tell her you don't have time to help her and that your study group is full.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

Not horrible. You're not going to carry her through the NCLEX, so she either learns to study now or increases her risk of failing later. A&P is tough, but it's not the top of that hill, you know?

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Specializes in Addictions Nursing, LTC.

Not horrible at all. Maybe you could explain to her that you each take your own notes and recordings and get together afterwards to compare and assist one another, and when she's prepared to get her own information together in the same way, you could try it and see how it works out. Let her know that the three of you have your own system that works for you, and when she's able to conform to that, maybe you can give it a try.

Considering her past performance she's unlikely to be able to get to that point, so you wouldn't exactly have to tell her no.

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Pecas, you said what exactly what I was thinking.

Give the slacker the benefit of the doubt.

Let said lazy ass try to fit in by doing her own work to compare with yours. Make it a requirement.

If the leech is sincere, it may be worth it. If not, there's no way the waste of space will do the work and you have solved your problem while looking like a hero.

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There were three of us in my study group during nursing school. We study well together and were able to tell each other to focus when things started getting off track. When people asked to join or come study with us, we told them that a we were keeping it small and didn't want to add anyone else. We encouraged them though to find other people to study with.

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Yes that's a rough position. I agree with pecas... But I feel for the leech. She prolly has no idea that her study habits are going to fail her out eventually

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Specializes in NICU, Trauma, Oncology.
Not horrible at all. Maybe you could explain to her that you each take your own notes and recordings and get together afterwards to compare and assist one another, and when she's prepared to get her own information together in the same way, you could try it and see how it works out. Let her know that the three of you have your own system that works for you, and when she's able to conform to that, maybe you can give it a try.

Considering her past performance she's unlikely to be able to get to that point, so you wouldn't exactly have to tell her no.

This is a very diplomatic way of approaching the situation.

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

It's not horrible to not want to study with someone, but it is better to help people when you can, and when it doesn't hurt you to do so.

I agree with those that said to give her a "homework assignment" to complete in order to get in your group. It is likely at this level that she doesn't know how to study, outline chapters, etc. Many poor students don't. She may be looking to you to figure it out. Give her a very specific task. Like "write all the definitions from chapters 20 - 25 on index cards, and bring them with you to our group at 3:00 on Wednesday. There should be about 50 cards all together. We like them handwritten." Give her a later time to come then you would start. If you want, you could ask her to make copies of the work for each person to review.

I am a straight A student, and I generally prefer to work alone. However, I will spend some time explaining concepts to poor students, as it helps both of us to learn. Not a lot of time.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Not horrible. Stop enabling her by giving her your recordings & notes. Tell her your group is collaborative and if she wants to bring her outline or notes she's welcome. If she needs help refer to professor or tutoring

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I like the idea of assigning her "homework" to make sure she is invested. I wouldn't mind her joining us if I knew she would do some of the work. I will talk to the others about it. Thank you for the ideas everyone!

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