I am reaching out to my community a bit frustrated and concerned as we prepare for another semester of nursing school at Mercy College. Up to this point nothing has ever been easy, nothing has ever been smooth sailing. I’m sure many of us can agree nursing school is far from easy or smooth sailing. But is this because of us as students or is this because of the staff at Mercy College. 

Every single professor has told us, "Can't help you." "It's very unfair but we were told we can't help." In regards to exams, exam review, and material. As a cohort we have realized we are with professors who just read slides instead of explaining, we do not receive any complex questions in class to prepare us for the exam, we have yet to work on any dosage questions, or case studies yet this makes up the entire exam. Mercy College is a rather big commuter school similar to the surrounding colleges so many students. MANY other nursing students who go to surrounding nursing schools such as Pace, NYU, Lehman, LIU, Mount Saint Vincent and Mount Saint Mary have never experienced anything like this before where our own professors can't assist us in being successful in this class.

Professor Patricia Sutton, the Professor who has made the exams for the entire cohort taking Med Surg I & II the past few years has limited all resources that our professors can give us to pass this class. Professor Sutton "Med Surg is hard" is no excuse for allowing us to start this semester failing. Some of us started studying before the semester even began knowing that you as a professor have a bad rep for giving us unfair exams. This is the second year in a row where Professor Sutton has failed us students due to her lack of guidance and extreme standards. It is unheard of that one Professor, who does not lecture ANY courses for Med Surg I, makes an entire exam for the entire cohort to take with no other Professors input or guidance. 

I thought after last semester with 70% of the 2022 cohort failing and having to take a FREE Med Surg I this summer that maybe Mercy College would have taken that as we need help, assistance, and guidance but I guess not. These are our lives; our tuition pays for all the staff at Mercy College bills each month. YES, nursing school is hard, YES nursing is not going to come easy, and YES, we need to study and prepare. We have heard it all. Med Surg is hard. We know it. But it's clear that it's mostly hard because we aren't assisted in any way shape or form. I have never heard of an institution using the class is difficult and visit office hours as an excuse for more then half of the entire class failing. We do not receive any guides, we do not receive any format, we do not receive any review class, we do not receive any blueprint, we do not receive anything but a date for the exam and our own prayers to hopefully be answered. We are expected to pass exams with flying colors yet we have no guidance or understanding of how we are being tested. 

Mercy College keeps brushing off that this is much more then a tuition check handed to them each semester, this is our future, this is our income, this is how we will put food on our families tables. We have been put through so much this past year with nurses dropping like flies. I much rather call my four years “YouTube University" at this point. Self teach is the only way our cohort is getting through.

We are left behind and expected to know everything with no guidance except an expected pass grade, we will be lucky to get even close. Do better, this semester just started, and we are already being neglected. 

WE NEED CHANGE. We need to be heard. We need more guidance, we need study guides, we need reviews, and we most of all we need Professor Sutton to lose her the responsibility of making Med Surg I exams entirely. Our professors, who teach Med Surg Lectures, need to come together and make the exam themselves as those who are actively teaching like every other semester and class such as Pediatrics and Maternity. This is the second year in a row that students have been asking and pleading for a change.