your thoughts on testing

[bennettsmith]

Last spring, one student nurse who had seen her grades on the borderline, dropped her classes and came back the fall semester. This time she still found only one of her classes too difficult to pass. so, now,after dropping it for the second time, she is going to be retaking it next semester (these are still the first block of classes). She recently brought it to the teachers attention that she has ADD -she had known about it ,and had been taking her medication for it for a few years now. She said she would not had made the mistakes she had made if she had untimed testing. What do you think? Should the school of nursing allow for untimed testing for those with ADD?

[bennettsmith]

You choose to have relationships with your family, you chose to spend time with them, sometimes live with them. All choices....of course you can't choose who your biological family are.....but you chose to be in relationship with them or not.

Family was brought up as a constraint of nursing school. One could choose to walk away from family and go to nursing school. Now the likelihood of making that choice is between slim and none and for the overwhelming majority....it is a completely terrible idea to give up all ties with family to go to nursing school.

But brain chemistry is never a choice at any level....your brain chemistry is your brain chemistry. You can take medications that temporarily modifies it to some degree....but your brain chemistry is still your brain chemistry.

That's why ADHD is considered a disability and having a family while in nursing school isn't.

Do you consider any of the other examples to be at a disadvantage on a test -considering the state of mind they would be in?

[CuriousMe]

Do you consider any of the other examples to be at a disadvantage on a test -considering the state of mind they would be in?

Not sure what you mean....do you mean the situations you listed in post 7 (Those students who give birth mid semester, have full time jobs and family to help stress things out ,or those who deal with family tragedies during the program)?

Stress could impact someone's state of mind when they take a test, but that is the same with all students (those that have disabilities and those who don't) so I'm not sure what your point is. Are you trying to equate the stress of dealing with life while in nursing school with a disability?

[elkpark]

It's really v. simple -- regardless of whether particular individuals may agree or disagree with the concept, legally, recognized mental health conditions are considered "disability" in the same way that being blind, wheelchair-bound, etc., is considered "disability," and they are treated the same under the federal and state laws that regulate how disabled persons are treated in educational settings and in the workplace and what level of accommodations they're entitled to.

It's not about how much stress you're under (or why) on a particular day -- it's about your permanent, baseline state.

If it's any comfort to the OP (who is clearly v. bothered by the idea of classmates getting accommodations at school), the disability laws regarding education are much more stringent than the laws regarding the workplace -- once people graduate from school, employers have much looser requirements about how far they must go to accommodate disabilities -- it's pretty much a matter of whether you can do the job or not (if not, too bad).

[Guest 360983]

So you can choose your family? Just to stray from the original question even further -How would you go about choosing not to have those things?

Family is a choice. My boyfriend and I have cut off our relationship with his mother. We don't help with her bills, we don't see her even when we're near where she lives, we don't answer her phone calls or emails. I can't say we're jumping up and down with joy about the situation, but it was the best decision for us.

However, I think the point is that everyone has a family and money stressors and that sort of thing. ADHD people have an additional issue that non ADHD people do not have, and they need accommodations to deal with this.

I think a similar analogy is Army PT tests. You have to take periodic PT tests, where you must do a certain number of pushups and situps and run 2 miles fast enough. The minimum amount of pushups and situps and the slowest acceptable run time differs based on gender and age. As a 24 year old woman, I was not expected to run as fast or do as many pushups or situps as an 18 year old man. One could see this as biased (She's not held to the same standards as him!) but it was designed as a way of accommodating different genders and ages while still holding everyone responsible for being physically fit.

To draw the analogy out even more, some people in the Army can't run due to medical issues. Those who can't run still take PT tests, but they have to walk 2.5 miles in a specified time. This accommodates their medical problem and holds them responsible for remaining physically fit.

[Alternator81]

I don't think exams should really be timed at all, within reason. I have never come close to running out of time for any of my exams, but for those who take longer it is just more added pressure to an exam.

I remember a statistics instructor that told us if we run out of time, we could head up and finish it in her office or the testing center. I believe that took a lot of pressure of all of the students & everyone finished all of their exams within the class time.