The good news is that I passed my test the second time around. The bad news is that many of my classmates weren’t so lucky. It felt like a surreal scene; I guess I didn’t think they would actually kick people out of school because they wrote 1.3 kg instead of 1.30 kg. But they did. I wanted to take pics and video with my cell phone because it is impossible to convey the frantic hopelessness before and after this test with mere words, but I figured my cronies wouldn’t appreciate it. People were sobbing and throwing up just from anxiety BEFORE the test. Then afterward the ones who failed both tries came out crying and had to go straight to the business office and drop out of school (they designed it so this was the last day you could drop and still get a full refund). There was just mass chaos. I have never felt such intense pressure in my life. Is it really necessary? One student who got kicked out is reported to be a straight A student (like me until now; my first fail knocks me out of A contention in this class!)! Must we lose potentially good nurses because of a bizarre pressure cooker test? This test doesn’t really test math skills; it tests ability to function under inhuman pressure. I just keep saying I can’t believe that whole scene. Seriously, I have never seen so many people under such high stress before. An entire gaggle of grown people was reduced to tears at the PROSPECT of 10 math questions. I’m glad I have to endure this only two more times before I graduate. Next hurdle: check-offs and technologies final next week. Followed by exams all the next week. Agh. I am so tired. I am going to go crash and burn.
Anyone reading this who isn’t a nurse: go find a nurse RIGHT NOW and tell him or her how much you appreciate how much he/she went through in order to become qualified to care for you in your hour of need!
I have never heard of such behavior from a university program! Congratulations to you for holding up under the pressure, but DAMN! What was the point of that?! My sympathies to your fallen brethren.
~Raven
I sit corrected. We were threatened with same, but turned out they continued to give the test until we passed.
I totally understand how wrong it seems.
Congrats for passing, as weird as that feels.
Gah-
I thought they had done away with this barbaric practice.
I went through this, and was so damn nervous that I shook throughout the test.
Its ridiculous. Yes, as nurses, we use math. But we have friends, co workers, calculators, and fancy IV pumps that do calculations, too.
This is amazing. it seems a bit arbitrary, and I feel for all those who had to pack up and leave because of this one test. On the other hand, what you said about the test really being about functioning under inhuman pressure might actually make a twisted sort of sense, considering the profession you’re going into. Not that I’m endorsing such high stakes for a 10-question math test; I’m just saying that there is a certain logic to it.
Can you provide more detail about the kinds of math questions? Why is 1.3 kg not the same as 1.30 kg?
I’m not in nursing school but found this webpage from google a search when I typed in “math skills.” (I’m trying to update my math skills though.) Bless you for taking this class, especially under that kind of pressure. Nurses are my heroes.
Detail? You got it…
“A patient is being induced with pitocin. The bag is labeled ‘Pitocin 20 U in 1 L lactated Ringer’s.’ The patient is to receive 20 mU of pitocin per minute. The infusion pump will be set at ___ mL/h.”
“The physician has ordered a loading dose of 80 mcg terbutaline IV to be given over 1 h. The pharmacy sends a bag labeled ‘Terbutaline 20 mg in 1 L lactated Ringer’s.’ What rate per hour will the nurse set the infusion pump?”
Also, 1.3 kg was a wrong answer because pediatric weights are always rounded to the hundredths place. Gah. Gah!
Thanks for the info. Again, I’m not a nursing student, but the questions appear to be rather simple arithmetic problems. Sure some people balk at word problems and the terminology - at least for me - is confusing. Do you think some of the anxiety might have been based on limited math skills or some sort of math phobia? Or is nursing school really such a pressure cooker that you can barely think at all?
I think the last option is it. None of it is mathematically hard, which is what makes it so infuriating when you mess up some little thing! Almost all the people who missed points missed them for little things—like I did. When everything rides on a simple thing, though, it gets more complicated somehow.
Sorry, but I have to say that I don’t think it unfair at all.
A significant part of being a nurse includes attention to detail and precise calculations. Mess up one calculation because you’re a bit flustered and a person could die.
Personally, I want my nurse to be able to do simple arithmetic while I’m coding and the doc asks for Dopamine at 5 mcg/kg/min.
It seems extreme to be kicked out of an entire program, but I still agree with it. You can be great at math, but if you can’t be great at it while under some intense pressure, then maybe you shouldn’t have people’s lives in your hands.
Why apologize for your opinion? Just state it. It is a reasonable one. I *do* wonder if I should be a nurse. Every day, lately. The terror tactics have caused me and a fair number of my classmates to seriously consider dropping out of school and doing something else. I do see the point of technical competence under pressure, but I don’t see the necessity of this “academic hazing.” All the BSN programs around me seem to produce competent nurses without terrifying them out of their wits on a regular basis, and there need to be nurses on the floor—not would-be nurses who are doing something else because of a rounding error! I chose my program because of its stellar reputation, and I guess this is why they have that reputation. On balance I would rather be a better nurse than receive encouragement, but the practice of that theory is GRIM. I would like to say (and I thought this was the case) that I am an adult and I can drive myself to my limits day in and day out for months at a time even if I’m told at least once a day that I am bad at everything I try without having my spirit destroyed, but it doesn’t work like that…it wears on me. Still, I think I *will* be a good nurse, and I think if I quit right now then patients who would otherwise receive good care would be left with one fewer nurse on the floor who could provide good, competent care to them.