I'm a first year LPN student (been in college for 2 years doing pre req's and waiting) and I can't believe how strict our attendance policy is! I mean, I can totally understand why regular, prompt attendance is important, but in one of my classes you can only miss 10% of the total hours of the class (including clinicals), which evens out to 4.5 hours, so if you miss more then 1 class period you FAIL.
I have the flu! AND tomorrow is our midterm exam! What should I do? Go to class and interrupt everyone with the constant hacking (and hope I don't puke), potentially infecting everyone else?
Or stay home and take the atomatic 5% decrease in points to take the test late, plus pray that I nor my 3 year old daughter gets sick again until December? I'm so conflicted!
What would you do? I'm running a slight fever and coughing excessively.
I hate that students are put in the position of having to come to school very ill or lose points on an important item like a test...Particularly since it has been my experience that many students become ill shortly after starting clinicals or working in a hospital (it's a lot of germs in one place!) When I started working at the hospital, I was violently ill within 1 and 1/2 weeks: vomiting and such. Not fun.
My program instructors actually told us it behooves us NOT to come to school ill and take a test because we probably won't do as well when we're sick. They just stated the importance of communicating with faculty when we're sick and being proactive.
Believe me, I understand the need for the attendance policies, but I also see the unfortunate dilemma they can present for students sometimes.
In class two days ago, a girl was vomiting and had diarrhea. The instructor told her she needed to go home. She was very sympathetic to her and wish her well and to get some rest. The student came back the next day to a write-up for violation to the attendance policy. I guess the student could have refused to go home. I dont understand how the student got written-up when told she had to leave. I know about BON policy but come on....
In class two days ago, a girl was vomiting and had diarrhea. The instructor told her she needed to go home. She was very sympathetic to her and wish her well and to get some rest. The student came back the next day to a write-up for violation to the attendance policy. I guess the student could have refused to go home. I dont understand how the student got written-up when told she had to leave. I know about BON policy but come on....
That is also illegal.
You cannot send a student home for an illness and then turn around and penalize her for it due to an illness.
Some instructors have too much of the "God complex" and "enforce" rules that don't exist or seriously abuse their authority.
If I came back to such a write up, I would not only have refused to sign it, I would have told them, (so they would know up front) that I obviously needed to appeal this decision...all the way up the chain if I had to.
Folks, you have to have the courage to nip these situations in the bud as they occur....that is what students at my school did. We had instructors that were found guilty of violation of school policy more than once during my program.
If you let it go to the point that you get dismissed, then they'll throw the policy in your face by stating, "Well, if you had an issue with the warnings, then you should have filed a grievence....and you didn't."
I would HIGHLY ENCOURAGE everyone to look over the entire grievance procedure at each of their schools that are students.
At the very, very top of the grievance procedure in almost every school, you see something called "special counsel"....that is an attorney folks.
The reason is that once it gets appealed to that level, an attoney looks the situation over and makes a determination that if the school was sued and wound up in court...could they win the case. If the answer is no, the student will win the appeal, if the answer is yes, the request will be denied.
At that point, it is not longer a school policy point..but a legal issue, that is why they pass it along to an expert if it goes that far.
You MUST KNOW what the procedures in your school are.
You cannot send a student home for an illness and then turn around and penalize her for it due to an illness.
Some instructors have too much of the "God complex" and "enforce" rules that don't exist or seriously abuse their authority.
If I came back to such a write up, I would not only have refused to sign it, I would have told them, (so they would know up front) that I obviously needed to appeal this decision...all the way up the chain if I had to.
Folks, you have to have the courage to nip these situations in the bud as they occur....that is what students at my school did. We had instructors that were found guilty of violation of school policy more than once during my program.
If you let it go to the point that you get dismissed, then they'll throw the policy in your face by stating, "Well, if you had an issue with the warnings, then you should have filed a grievence....and you didn't."
I would HIGHLY ENCOURAGE everyone to look over the entire grievance procedure at each of their schools that are students.
At the very, very top of the grievance procedure in almost every school, you see something called "special counsel"....that is an attorney folks.
The reason is that once it gets appealed to that level, an attoney looks the situation over and makes a determination that if the school was sued and wound up in court...could they win the case. If the answer is no, the student will win the appeal, if the answer is yes, the request will be denied.
At that point, it is not longer a school policy point..but a legal issue, that is why they pass it along to an expert if it goes that far.
You MUST KNOW what the procedures in your school are.
I couldn't agree with you more. If that teacher sent me home and then when I came back wrote me up believe me I would have made such a stink that they would never do that again. Our nursing class would have protested loudly at that one. The girl made a good faith effort to show up--that should have been enough. Writing her up is nonsense.
This is one of the few regrets I have about leaving the UK. Their sick leave and vacation policies were humane. You will never get them in this country because big business would boo hoo too much.
As for the test -- just go take it and do as well as you can. I hate that you will probably have to drive while you feel like poop and sit through a test, then drive back. I don't think it is safe for people to have to do this nor is it good for your health.
We have quite a strict policy at our school. Clearly it doesn't apply to our instructors though. Our skills instructor has already missed 6 hours of class. I really like her but her problem has become the students problem and we are behind.
Always_Learning, BSN, RN
461 Posts
I hate that students are put in the position of having to come to school very ill or lose points on an important item like a test...Particularly since it has been my experience that many students become ill shortly after starting clinicals or working in a hospital (it's a lot of germs in one place!) When I started working at the hospital, I was violently ill within 1 and 1/2 weeks: vomiting and such. Not fun.
My program instructors actually told us it behooves us NOT to come to school ill and take a test because we probably won't do as well when we're sick. They just stated the importance of communicating with faculty when we're sick and being proactive.
Believe me, I understand the need for the attendance policies, but I also see the unfortunate dilemma they can present for students sometimes.