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!
3 missed clinical days and you are out of the program, period. On lecture days, we are allowed to miss up to 3 days but no real penalty applys but there is also no recording system like you describe. Also, if you miss a test, you get a harder one that includes essay and fill in the blanks; they don't receive the same multiple choice exam as the rest of us responsible students do :)
Things come up and classes will be missed...but I thinkl you only hurt yourself not going to class. I'm paying out the ^^^ for my schooling so I'm going to be there!
My school is very simple...if you miss 2 days of lecture and 2 days of clinical in one semester then your out of that cohort...no exceptions... people have given birth and had to wait until the next cohort. Also you are not promised a seat in the next cohort but automatically placed as an alternate. They also only give you one chance at repeating the program and then your out of the program for good.
classroom attendance is not mandatory, but youre on your own to get notes or a recording from another student. if you have to miss a test, they want a good reason and you get a fill in the blank test that is much harder instead of multiple choice and you have to take it the next school day if possible (obviously if you were in a serious accident or something to that effect and are hospitalized youre not making it in). ive already called on a test day and told them i was sick (food poisoning, in the bathroom q15 mins. lol) and they said it would be in my best interest to come in to take the test if i could. they gave me my own room to take the test in near a bathroom with my own proctor. lol
clinical you can miss up to 2 a semester without failing, but you are charged 100 dollars a day and have to make it up at the schools convenience.
Our clinical policy stated that you could miss no more than one clinical day. So you could miss one day, but if you missed another then you failed the clinical.
Our lecture policy stated that you could miss 15% of your classes, but if you missed more then you automatically failed for the semester.
There was no specific policy for missing tests and making them up. It was at the discretion of the instructor.
I'm starting nursing school in the fall, but I have a bachelor's from a big state university, and I've completed all of my prereqs. In every single class, missing a test could ONLY be accommodated if there was some major event that happened. Of course, once that policy was put in place, teachers COULD decide on a case by case basis to veer away from it. In my A&P course, we were told that if we talked to ANYONE when leaving our lab practicals, we would fail the exam.
As far as I'm concerned, this is grown up land. I think that if you can't give a good reason for missing an exam, or it's very obvious that this person doesn't do this often (things like cars breaking down and power outages do happen), then it shouldn't be accepted. Or you should get one "no questions asked" make up, and it should be different questions than everyone else got.
We didn't have an official attendance policy, so it was up to the instructors on how strict they wanted to be. One of our instructors gave a quiz at the end of every lecture. There was no make-up quizzes - if you were absent you got a 0. Other instructors have had a sign-in sheet, but I don't think those were ever really effective.
Our test policy was that there were NO make up exams. If you had an excused absence and told the instructor before the test, then the percentage that the test was worth was added onto your final percentage, making your final count more. (So if the test was 20% and the final 40% of your grade, your final would now be worth 60%). Otherwise, unexcused absences resulted in a 0.
we are allowed to miss one exam in each class as long as we email(no excuse needed) in advance. they allow one week to make it up. but if you don't give notice, you get 0 for that exam. attendance is based on instructors preference.
Here is my university's attendance and test make-up policy directly from my Mental Health syllabus from this past semester:
"After 3 classroom absences (consecutive or not), a concern form will be generated and the student will need to meet with the classroom instructor to discuss an action plan. After the 4th absence, the student will be required to appear before the admission and progression committee to discuss course progression and possible consequences. Excessive absences and/or failure to appear before the instructor or the admission and progression committee may result in grade adjustments, recommended withdrawal from the course, or failure.
If you are absent two consecutive class sessions immediately prior to a clinical rotation, you must meet with course faculty for permission to go to clinical. If you are not prepared for clinical, you will receive an Unsatisfactory Clinical Day.
Students are expected to sit for all examinations in this course on the date they are scheduled. Make-up exams will receive an automatic 5% reduction in the respective exam's final score. The make-up exam will be scheduled at the instructor's convenience within 5 business days, and may be in a different format than the one originally given. Any student arriving late for an examination will need to complete the exam in the time remaining. Additionally, any student arriving after any other students have left the examination room will need to schedule a make up exam with the mandatory 5% point deduction for first late exam; 10% deduction for subsequent late exams. For example: You take your exam late and score 85%; I will then deduct 5% for taking the exam late and the score will be recorded as 80%.
When averaging exams scores for the purpose of determining if you have achieved the 75% requirement, the exam scores used to calculate this average will include the deduction for late exam."
They also made a revision to our nursing student handbook stating that if we miss more than 3 days for a single course we will automatically receive a 3% deduction in our overall grade for the course.
Annachu512, BSN, RN
239 Posts
3 missed clinical days and you are out of the program, period. On lecture days, we are allowed to miss up to 3 days but no real penalty applys but there is also no recording system like you describe. Also, if you miss a test, you get a harder one that includes essay and fill in the blanks; they don't receive the same multiple choice exam as the rest of us responsible students do :)
Things come up and classes will be missed...but I thinkl you only hurt yourself not going to class. I'm paying out the ^^^ for my schooling so I'm going to be there!