Stupid Things that get you kicked out of nursing school

Nursing Students General Students

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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 Emergency/Cath Lab.

Yeah we get 2 chances on our med test. I was freaking out though because I was arrested the weekend before NS started, I was almost out before I even began.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Yeah we get 2 chances on our med test. I was freaking out though because I was arrested the weekend before NS started, I was almost out before I even began.

You can't just leave it at that. You know what the question of the hour is LOL

We have the 100% rule before Each clinical rotation and you get 3 tries. We haven't lost anyone yet from Clinicals or Returns, or the Dosage Calc tests. This semester we had to take the Dosage Calc test twice, the first half of the semester we had to take it for Med/Surg clinicals and the second half for the Peds/Ob.

We haven't lost anyone for dumb reasons though, all have been grade related (77% min. at our school) and 1 we don't know the exact story but he was known for screwing everyone, even CI's we had. But he was also working at the hospital we do all OB clinicals at. Well he got fired from the hospital and apparently what ever he did was so bad they said he wasn't welcome back at the hospital again not even for clinicals. Since that company is the only place we have for OB he was kicked out.

I am so far 98% happy with our program.

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Doesnt pharmacology teach you everything you need to know for the math? Are you still learning new math and dosage calculations after Pharm?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

This is a Lazarus thread, but I'm gonna throw in some dosage calculation mistakes I've seen in my class. For those who don't know how to set up problems, these hints will probably not help you. You have to know how to set them up before you can get them right. So, this is really a list of, "I CANNOT BELIEVE I MISSED THAT!" mistakes.

1. Memorize your formulas and conversions! Put them on flashcards and go over them until you can recall them without effort. I don't know how many times I thought I knew the formulas, and with test anxiety, I've freaked out and really had to search my brain to "find" them.

2. Know what the problem is asking for. If it's asking for ml/hr, don't give gtts/min!

3. Conversions, conversions, conversions. When the dosage is in mcg and the available is in mg (or vice versa), make sure you convert!!!!! Same goes for mg/kg/day when you're given the weight of the patient in pounds.

4. Follow the rounding rules given within the problem itself. If you don't, you could be 1/10th off. If you see two multiple choice answers that are 1/10th apart, do the problem again to make sure you do your intermediate rounding correctly.

These are simple mistakes that smart people make. At least for #2 and #4 above, these mistakes would NOT necessarily make an unsafe nurse if the answer was correct; it would just make a nursing student miss the test question.

For example, on a practice test I did, I filled in the answer at 1.95 when there were no rounding instructions in the problem. The correct answer was 2. I missed that question. :uhoh3:

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

Drawing up insulin in a non-insulin syringe and ready to give it. :nono:

Or trying to administer meds down an ET tube. :no:

This student got kicked out.

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Interesting, what school is this? Or what state is the school in?

Oakland Community College in Waterford, Michigan

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Our school gives us practice tests and the math exams are as simple as mastering the 25 practice questions. Not to toot my own horn but I have gotten 100% on all the tests and I grew up with my school telling me I had a "math learning disability" and I would never be able to do it.

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We lost quite a few people because of the dosage calculation exam. You had to make a 90% to pass and you got one retake.

There was one girl who hid flash cards in the pocket of her hoodie so she could use them to cheat during the exam. She got caught and was kicked out.

We had certain skills we had to pass off at the end of the semester. There were quite a few people who failed because they couldn't pass off the skills - BP's gave people the most trouble.

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