It is hard to believe that we are half way through the first semester of this academic year! The Juniors and Seniors will be finishing their first rotations of the fall semester (nursing students do a full semester worth of class in eight weeks. A full semester is 16 weeks in length). The students are working hard and spending a great deal of time studying. I am pleased to see that they are taking their studies so seriously. Sometime in the future when they are registered nurses, this knowledge that they are acquiring may mean the saving of a patient’s life.
H1N1 update: We have ordered the H1N1 vaccine and all of our nursing students will receive the vaccine. So far our campus has not been hard hit nor has the nursing school. We have emphasized all the interventions that are reasonable to reduce the chance of acquiring the disease including good and frequent handwashing. All of the other measures we have instituted, I addressed in the September column.
Why does the Nursing School have a higher grading system than the rest of the University?
The School of Nursing does not accept grades of under 76% as passing. 75% and under is considered a D grade, while a 69% and lower is an F. The University considers 70% to 80% a C. 90% to 100% is an A. In the School of Nursing, 93% to 100% is an A; 86% to 92% a B; 76% to 85% a C; 70%-75% a D; and, anything below a 70% an F. First of all, a unit can always set standards higher than the University’s standard, but never lower. Secondly, studies that have been done that correlated final grades in nursing courses with success (first time pass rates) on the NCLEX-RN, the national board exam for graduates of nursing programs. Studies have found that students who scored under 76% in any nursing course had a higher failure rate on the NCLEX. Consequently, in 2003 the faculty voted to institute a more rigorous grading scale. The SON graduates approximately 170 prenursing students annually. The first time pass rate for the graduates ranges between 88% to 96%. Considering the large volume of students who graduate these scores are actually very good. In Illinois a student must score 75% or better to become licensed as a registered nurse.
If you have any other questions about the nursing program at SIUE please feel free to email me at mamaure@siue.edu and if the issue is urgent I will respond as quickly as I can. If the question is of a general nature that all readers might benefit from knowing the answer, I will address it in the next monthly column. Finally, parents, husbands, wives, siblings and friends of the students in the nursing program should be extremely proud of the commitment and dedication that these students display. The program is rigorous but the intent is to prepare an outstanding nurse. Many clinical agencies seek our students out and we are frequently invited to send our students for their clinical practicums to a particular agency. When these students are progressing through the program you need to understand that they are extremely focused and totally immersed in all this new knowledge. When young adults are often maligned for not having direction or focused on frivolous things, to see the steadfastness these students have to becoming professional nurses it is quite breathtaking!
‘Til next month
Dean & Professor, Nursing
