Nursing 131 spring 2014 appeal
Trinitas School of Nursing
225 Williamson St.
Elizabeth, NJ 07202
908-994-5000
To whom it may concern,
This letter is in reference to the failure rate of nursing 131 of the spring 2014 semester. It is an alarming fact that the school should be highly concerned about this situation. We, the students of nursing 131 have been in contact with each other and we all feel this issue should be looked into on your behalf. The following are some major concerns that should be addressed:
1.The lectures are not geared towards the questions being asked on the exams and final.We understand critical thinking is essential in nursing however the lectures did not aid nor prepareus in being able to answer the questions.Nomatter what we did, whether it wasforming study groups, buying and practicing questions on NCLEX books, buying phone applications, spendinghours studying and understanding the material;we were always unprepared for the exam questions. TheBrunner & Suddarth's textbookwas not easily comprehen
2.A lot of emphasis in lecture was put on our final topic, e.g.,Care of patients with cancer, and onlyfour to fivequestions were present on the final exam. We understand it is called a “final exam” but we feel misguided because the content covered and or written on the syllabus did not reflect the questions on the exam.
3.The questions on the final were mostly trivial with some not evenworded properly. The majority of the students all feel nursing 131 exams are not entry level questions.
4.Upon communicating with other students who have taken Nursing 131 in previous semesters,they were allowed to complete 100 questions [20 of which were math] in 3 hours for the final exam.Whereas, studentsthis semester were given 100 questions [only 10 math questions] to complete inless time.Also,Nursing 132 students were given three hours to complete their 100-question final. Knowing thiswe areeven more confused and frustrated withTrinitasSchool of Nursing. If we had1.5 hoursto complete a 50-question exam then we should have been given three hours to complete a 100-question exam.
5.Many students have witnessed and been let down by the staff. For example, when a student would ask a question for clarification, that student was told “go read the book.”
6.Overall,the questionson the finalseemed like they were designed formore advanced coursesand not for entry level nursing students. Atthis point we donothave theknowledge orskillstobeable to rationalize and answer these questionscorrectly.
7.If an emergency occurred or a student missed their lecture class it should’ve been acceptable for that student to sit on another class.
8.The skills lab was not available most of the time despite the weather this winter. There were many times it was closed or abruptly changed with the timing schedule. We all had to rearrange our schedule to only rearrange it again and again. Some travel far and most of us work.
9.Many students have witnessed some students have “preference” or “favorability” by staff. Education should be equal across the board and not given priority to certain students or special private invitations for tutoring.
Therefore,this semester has been disheartening to the majority of us. The faculty should have realized earlier that a largemajority of students were failing and should have been concerned and approach the matter. We all understand we, the students have to put effort into studying and our own time but the school should also intervene when there is a massive failure rate. We feel cheated and robbed out of our lives because the issue of the failure rate wasn’t addressed in an appropriate time with proper measures. We entered this program with good will and paid a very expensive tuition and to not had been offered any extra help when the failure rate was very evident is very discouraging and upsetting.
Also note, this does not only reflect the ones that did not pass but the ones that did. It is in consensus that we all feel nursing 131 did not provide a substantial background from teaching to written exams. The tuition itself is a huge motivator to succeed plus the fact that we are all outstanding individuals who will be fabulous nurses. All in all we worked diligently to perform our best and to attain our goal to be a professional nurse but in the end our best was not enough.
Wepropose that everyone should be given equal opportunity with thefollowingoptions:
1.Retakea fair final,
2.Allowstudents who were a few points short of passing to be matriculated to Nursing 132,or
3.Assigna project or extra credittoboost our finalgrade.
We would sincerely appreciate a fair resolution to this matter. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Respectfully,
Students of nursing 131
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