What's Your Attendance Policy?

[KatieJ91]

Hi fellow nursing students!

I am on a committee at school right now in which we have been asked by the program director to come up with a new attendance policy.

The current problem is that the attendance policy merely states that unexcused absences are seen as unprofessional and that is is our responsibility to get the material. We have a recording system called tegrity that is not always the most reliable, but in most cases is available for those who miss lecture or want to re listen to it. Some people are abusing the power and not coming to class because they can listen to the recording.

The other problem we have is that students are calling in sick before test and are being allowed to take it days later. This makes it so they have an unfair advantage and are also able to talk to friends or fellow classmates about material covered on the test. In the current policy there is no consequence for missing a scheduled test. If you do not show up or make arrangements there is a 15% consequence.

There are no problems with our clinical policy.

The committee and I are looking to see what other programs attendance policies are in order to see if what we have come up with is fair. Please tell us what your programs attendance and missed assignment policies are. Thank you!

[Jennybrie]

Basically in my program if you miss a class and it is not excused then you are on probation. Excused absence is determined by the director of nursing and unless you or your child is very, very sick you will not be excused. Missing a test varies with the instructor but usually is an automatic 8-10% deduction from the final score or a 0 if the absence was not excused. The last person that missed a quiz and was unable to retake it in the time they were given (2 weeks) failed the course. If you miss a clinical day and do not have the ability to recover those hours then you have to repeat the course next time it is offered.

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

our attendance policy is individual to each professor - some are more laid back than others...as for missing tests our policy states that the same material will be given in the makeup test, however the test can be in any form the professor wants - i.e. it could be only 10 essay questions (instead of 50 multi choice), or a verbal exam etc...

[RLtinker, LPN]

There isn't a universal attendance policy at our school. Each teacher is responsible for maintaining their own policies, the only exception is clinicals where you loose 15% of your total grade for each day you miss. Miss two clinical days and you get an "F" . In our program anything under 75% is failing. As for the regular classes, teachers keep attendance up one of two ways, either through pop quizzes or by assigning points for attending. In medsurg 1 for an example, we were told up front that we would have 6 pop quizzes durring the semester, which accounted for 120 points of our grade out of the 315 possible for the class. Pop quizzes could not be made up for any reason. As for missing tests, you had to contact the instructor that day and 5% of the grade was taken off for each day, after three days they gave you a zero.

[OKNurse2be]

I think that nursing school should be treated as a job to a large extent, because the requirements are very close and demand about the same, dependent upon the type of job of course. That being said, I think that absences should only be excusable if proof of why you were absent can be produced. If you are a parent and your child is very sick, you should be able to get some kind of proof that your child saw a doctor, or if YOU are the one sick you should be able to get a doctor's note. There should be a time limit on how long after a test date for a make up exam. No more than 48 hours in my opinion. Also, the make-up test should not be a carbon copy of the original test. I think that students should be required to contact faculty as soon as they know they are going to be absent to even have a chance to be excused. This is strictly my personal opinion on the matter, however it follows pretty close to the policies of my school.

[kh321]

Regarding lecture there is no policy on attendance. It is recommended that you attend but you don't have to. You must find the notes on your own. The only time you cannot miss is on exam days. With clinical you are allowed to miss between 8 and 16 hours depending on your semester. This time must be made up at the end of the semester on clinical make up days. You are allowed to miss 1 lab. If you miss a lab you must do a self-learning assignment.

I do not like the fact that lecture is pretty much optional. No one says anything to those students who are never in attendance.

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

We are only allowed to miss 10% of our class. We operate on 15-week trimesters, so 10% would be 1.5 days. A lot of people would slip through the cracks & miss a lot of days in lecture, b/c the instructors were adjunct & didn't bother taking attendance or learning our names lol. But for clinical & skills, this rule was definitely enforced. One time I missed a peds skill class & had to sign a form saying I missed class. It was placed in my file in the nursing office. One girl I knew missed two days of clinical & she received a failing grade.

For exams however, that was a different policy. If we missed an exam, we had to notify our instructor to make it up within 48 hours. Since it was counted as a "re-test", the highest we could get on it was 73% (which is a C in our program).

[CardiacKittyRN]

Our school's attendance policy states that students who miss 20% or more class days automatically must be withdrew from the course. Some general education teachers don't enforce this, but it is enforced in all nursing classes. If you are going to miss class, you must notify the instructor prior to class. You must have a doctor's excuse in order to make up a test and it has to be made up within 48 hours. We can't miss lab without a doctor's note.. but we can schedule ahead of time to attend a different lab if we can't be at our usual scheduled lab for some reason. For clinical, we can only miss one day. Its pretty strict but honestly, I only missed one day of class last semester because I was VERYYY sick and I missed alot. The next test ended up being my lowest test score.. I don't see how people could miss alot of lecture days & pass anyway. Also, our school doesn't allow us to record lectures.. so I think that's another reason people hardly ever miss class. Alot of questions we saw on tests came from scenarios from lecture that weren't covered in the book.

[lifelearningrn, BSN, RN]

Different instructors handle attendance differently. In one class- we had pre-lecture quizzes worth 10% of your grade and if you were late for class you could not take it. If you missed class there was no make up. You also received an 'unsatisfactory' for the day. Two "U's" means that one quiz grade gets turned to a zero. Showing up to lecture wasn't really an option for us in that class.

In the other classes, every so often they'd pass around roll, but I couldn't see where it made one iota of difference.

As far as exams go- you have to have an excused absence to miss one or it's a zero. This means a doctors note stating you were sick. You also have to email the instructor BEFORE the exam explaining why you won't be there as well as call the head office and notify the secretary of your absence. You are not allowed back on campus without that excuse.

My suggestion is to make it a hassle to miss an exam. Stuff comes up, and there should be a path to excuse you when that happens- but just calling and saying "I can't make it" shouldn't cut it.

Also- it may help to make the make-up exams essay or something like that- so that they don't WANT to miss the regularly scheduled exam. lol

[SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN]

For lectures you can come and go, there is no policy except for test days. You can not miss a test or you get a 0 unless there is a valid reason and you have proof AND cleared it with the teacher beforehand. For lab and clinical if you are more than 10 minutes late you get a warning, happens again you get a 3% deduction. If you are more than 30 minutes late at any time for lab/clinical it's an automatic 3% deduction. If you are absent it's automatic 3%. If you have an excuse (drs note or something from that day and time) you make an appt with the APG committee and argue your case and can get the 3% back.

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

Classroom attendance is not mandatory. However, quizzes and case studies cannot be made up after the fact -- if you're not there to hand in a case study or take an in-class quiz, you get a zero for that grade.

There is a 5% penalty [on the exam grade, not the course grade] for taking an exam after the fact (at instructor's discretion -- can be waived if the instructor feels you have a "good reason" for needing to reschedule), and it can only be taken late if advance notice was given (like if you're sick, so you email the instructor before the exam is scheduled to start, or you have to attend a funeral and let the instructor know ahead of time).

[Dre2416, BSN, RN]

Our school .. If you miss a test, too bad you get a zero, we don't have a makeup policy . We are in 8 week classes and can only miss 6 hrs of clinical and 6 hours of class. anymore and your out of the program.