Worried about failing clinical

[amymina]

I missed two days of clinical this semester, and it is my first semester. Didn't want to, but was sick with gastrointestinal problems a month ago, and had a nasty case of the flu this past week that I caught from the kids. Was told not to come to clinical due to the fact that they would send me right home cause I was so sick. And now cause I have missed two clinicals, I have to meet with the chair of the dept and they get to decide whether or not I get to pass class. I have offered to go in on another day at the hospital and make up the last missed day to get me back to one absence, but am worried. All of my grades are decent. It is a 75% to pass the class with a C and I have about a 90 in my fundamentals and a 95 in clinicals. There are a few other people that have missed two with worst grades and they have been able to continue. All I can basicallly do is go in and talk about the situation and show them my grades so that I can show I am serious about this. Is there any other suggestions? I hate being in this situation!

[Boog'sCRRN246, RN]

Why haven't you made up the clinicals prior to this? I'm pretty sure each state has mandatory clinical hours that have to be completed in order to graduate, no matter what the student's grades may be. Not sure why they haven't put you with another clinical group from your school to make up what you've missed.

When I started my program in August, the flu was all over the place, so many students missed clinicals right from the start. People were making up clinicals right up until the last day.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Why haven't you made up the clinicals prior to this? I'm pretty sure each state has mandatory clinical hours that have to be completed in order to graduate no matter what the student's grades may be. .[/quote']

A lot of schools schedule more than the minimum number of clinical hours so that the students still have the required number even if they miss a few days. That leaves it up to the school's discretion as to whether or not to require make-up days or not. That's smart planning on the part of the school. Their students get more than the minimum amount of clinical time and they get more flexibility with which to handle things that come up unexpectedly.

[elkpark]

Lots of schools don't have the ability to offer make-up days, period. If you miss more than the allowed number of hours, too bad. The hospital-based program I attended many years ago did offer make-up days if we missed any, but the ADN and BSN programs in which I've taught in recent years just didn't have any way for students to make up missed days. Clinical schedules and instructors are stretched to the breaking point to begin with, and there's no flexibility.

[amymina]

The school didn't want me to make up the first one, they gave me an assignment to complete on the computer and said that making it up in the actual clinical setting wasn't going to work at that time. There was only one day a week at that clinical site, so I don't think making it up was going to work. At this site, there are a few days a week with the same instructor, so I am hoping they will let me make it up in person, I want to learn as much as I can!

[elkpark]

I hope that will work out for you -- good luck! :)