Stupid Things that get you kicked out of nursing school

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During my first semester one of my peers was kicked out for not passing a calculations test. She already was working in home health and a high A on all of her test and did great in clinical. The only thing she failed was a single calculations test which was the first calculations test we ever took. Come to find out prior semester students were allowed to retake the test and get tutoring by instructors. She just needed a little help with the math but instead they failed her at the very end of the semester after she had done all the work for funds! I really felt quite bad for her, she would have had a better grade than I did! :crying2:

Second semester, One of my fellow peers who had been a bad teen was kicked out for have a criminal record as a minor. Instead of telling him they werent going to let him go to clinicals and pass meds they let him get all the way through fundamentals and then in adult one said sorry your out of the program. An he talked to the nursing dean about his record before entering the program and she had no problems!:angryfire

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
DAYTONITE

Did you see the article from Colgate University yesterday. They have had it with what they call helicopter parents who spend to much time hovering and making excuses for their children. One example was a school trip to China and the parents called to complain about the conditions and wanted to know what the school was going to do about it.

If I understood it the Dean is thinking of having freshman parenting classes regarding letting their children grow up and learn responsibility.

melissa

No, I hadn't seen the article. I'll have to look it up. Maybe the Dean is on to something. :rotfl:

Joyce

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Please have faith and respect in the people who run your nursing program. They have a duty to keep other students and potential patients safe and free of harm. They have your best interests at heart, really. Keep an open mind, question things, but don't be so quick to judge without as many facts as you can gather.

Which nursing school did you attend? Our administration is more worried about pass rates than student well being. Every policy decision or change I've witnessed has been to the detriment of students and fostered an adversarial relationship between the administration and students.

Re: Stupid things that can get you kicked out...

Our school has instituted a policy that all students must pass multiple instances of practice NCLEXs during the final "Nursing Seminar." Fail and they won't allow you to even take the NCLEX. How's that for maintaining acceptable NCLEX pass rates? If you fail the practice exam you fail the course and you may only retake a course once so two failed practice exams and *poof* multiples years of education are gone.

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Now some of these reasons are kind of outragous!!!!! Like who cares if you dont like your school???? WOW!! it;s actually making me think twice and being more careful about what I will say and do when I start Nursing School. :)

You will find that nursing schools have a code of ethics, a statement of values if you will. Nursing students are expected to act like professionals. If you read my list you will see that in most cases it was a very immature thing to do. We all know that we have an obligation to respect the privacy of patients, it is a hippa (sp?) violation to look at any patients records that you have no business looking at, or getting on an elevator talking about patients infront of everyone.

I think the schools look at it this way. They have a waiting list and if you don't like their program find another one because they do not need you and believe me there is someone who wants your spot.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Which nursing school did you attend? Our administration is more worried about pass rates than student well being. Every policy decision or change I've witnessed has been to the detriment of students and fostered an adversarial relationship between the administration and students.

I think that a person's own positive or negative attitude has a lot to do with the way they see things. If a person sees authority figures as being in a conflict with them, then nothing the authorities do is going to sit well. I'm sure a lot of nursing school administrators are worried about pass rates, but they also have a good many other concerns that they are not revealing. It is, perhaps, a primary concern that some of the faculty members have, unfortunately and unfairly, passed on to the students. I am thinking that the student pass/fail rates on NCLEX may be addressed on an instructors yearly evaluation and this is one reason why it has been voiced in front of the students. Just keep in mind that when you speak your mind other people are listening and assimilating. No one is perfect in what they say--not even nursing school administrators.

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Specializes in NICU/L&D, Hospice.

I didn't even know we were having a med/calc test until the instructor told us he would give us 15 mins to study. Aaaagggghhh! Luckily I had already studied it for the 20 mins I had between lect and lab. I didn't know we were having the "test" so early in the semester! One girl tried to take over the group with her "ideas" of mastering it. I found her ideas confusing and did my own thing. I got 10 and she failed. Not many of us got 10, but we only had to get 9 and had 3 chances (each one tougher than the previous test). Would I have done worse if I would have prepared for an "exam" instead of just studying????? Don't care to find out. I will be paying better attention to when the test is going to be. Funny thing is....I'm a really good listener. Except for the one time I guess I was (as my 7 year old says he is in class)"out of my mind" (daydreaming).

Lisa

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Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

Failure to wear my white shoes on a clinical day almost got me an unexcused absence and a clinical failure. Imagine that! I don't know what I was thinking when I got dressed (maybe the 5:30am hour???) but I slipped into my work shoes (gray New Balance) instead of my clinical whites. My instructor very calmly told me to go home and change my shoes and be back by the time of my patient assignment or have an unexcused clinical absence which = semester failure. I'm almost out the door in my 4th semester! That would suck.

Thank God I had another pair of white shoes in the car. I was gonna put them up on Ebay because they're so uncomfortable. Carry extra everything in your car.

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The dosage calculation thing is tough. And I can say that after passing my last one. We had to take a dosage calculations test for each class. You pass it at 100% or you can not pass meds at clinical which then means you fail clinical, you fail clinical you fail the course.

But think about it this way, a nurse needs to be able to pick up on medication errors. It could be terribly detremental to the patients health. So it is a good idea when you look at it that way. I mean if you look at it, the student got 9/10, how would you like to have been the 10 med pass, the one she got wrong?

Just my way of looking at it. :sofahider

I agree with you about this... I have my dosage calc test next week and I am freaking out because I have to get 100% or you fail the course....but I understand WHY this is important. I just need to practice practice practice!! and hope I pass!!

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During my first semester of school I was enrolled in Phramacology I. In my class we had this one guy who seemed to know all the street values of every type of drug you could think of. Everyone at first was amazed that he knew this type of information, but it didn't impress my instructor one bit. Our instructor was a Pharmacist and became suspicious of this guy after about the second week and took it upon himself to investigate the guys criminal background. Find out this guy recently served 4 years in prison for drugs. How can you not tell people about this? I tell ya, that was one that definitely slipped through the cracks, he probably could have stayed a little longer if he kept his mouth shut.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

Great anecdote, TrickieTam! You wrote it up beautifully. Just goes to show that you can't always judge a book by it's cover. Thanks for the story.

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I don't recall any stupid reasons my classmates got booted out...but we had strict pretests and background checks. The students who left the program did so voluntarily in my class.

Since I've worked as a nurse, students around me who've gotten the boot (in my experience) are the ones who couldn't follow the rules and/or just didn't 'get' something extremely important (like do not give meds until you have an instructor supervising..you'd be surprised how many students try this anyway...HUGE NoNo) There's lots of huge 'rules' in nursing, so when a student can't follow some basic expectations, she/he likely won't make it as a nurse anyway. I'd bet this is what most instructors are thinking. :)

Personally I think students should get a chance to redo the test to get all 100% right...you're still in learn mode. A wrong calc can harm a patient in real life but nurses will generally doublecheck with a coworker on a difficult calc. Potential for human error and all. :)

And of course most facilities have policies requiring a double check on some dosage calcs, and double checking doses prior to administering. :)

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During my first semester of school I was enrolled in Phramacology I. In my class we had this one guy who seemed to know all the street values of every type of drug you could think of. Everyone at first was amazed that he knew this type of information, but it didn't impress my instructor one bit. Our instructor was a Pharmacist and became suspicious of this guy after about the second week and took it upon himself to investigate the guys criminal background. Find out this guy recently served 4 years in prison for drugs. How can you not tell people about this? I tell ya, that was one that definitely slipped through the cracks, he probably could have stayed a little longer if he kept his mouth shut.

Reminded me of a nursing student we had with a rotating bandaid. When we began IV studys he was a pro. :chuckle

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Specializes in Operating Room.

I didn't even know there were "street values" on drugs. :confused: ....something I'm actually proud of being naive about ...lol

RNKittyKat: Thanks for the tip!! I'll make sure I have cheapo stuff to keep in my truck, just in case!!! (Not that my feet will appreciate cheap shoes at the end of the day, but at least I won't get kicked out for not having the right color shoes on!....or just in case my stethoscope "walks off", or I loose my bandage scissors, or........lol)

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