Students must be "passing" class to attend clinical

[kfynn589]

I am looking for some faculty perspective on this thought..

I have been teaching for about 8 years now (adjunct and then full time) in various roles. Recently a thought crossed my head.. students who have a grade average below 60 should not be able to attend clinical. My reasoning is they do not have enough knowledge to safely be in the clinical environment. I do not think it should be the 77.5 or higher (passing at my school), but rather an average of 60 or 65 or higher.

Pros:

- Clinical instructors would be able to spend more time with students who are performing well and likely to pass

- Clinical instructors could also spend more time with students on the cuff who would more likely benefit from that time

- There is more obtained knowledge from students to SAFELY be in clinical

- Students failing class can many times really struggle in clinical thus taking away the instructors time from other students 

Cons:

- Students may just be having a bad day on an exam thus lowering their average

- Make up clinical may be necessary if they pull their grade up

- Other students may have an idea the student isn't performing well

- Decrease their confidence 

- ?unsure of any legal issues surrounding this

 

*This is not even a proposed policy at my school... just something I just had a thought about! Wondering if anyone had any experience with this!

[NicelySeasoned]

When I was faculty in a BSN program, this was school policy. I am a firm believer if they didn't do the academic work, the clinical is not safe either. I would bring it up to your dean and see if you can discuss in staff meeting. We need good candidates to take the NCLEX to make good nurses. This is one way to get there.