University of Florida College of Nursing — Dismissal & Appeals

Written by Zachary Gaynor, attorney · The Florida Bar, admitted 2016 · court admissions. Reviewed 19 September 2026.

Who decides whether a UF nursing student is dismissed?

Here is the fact that shapes every UF College of Nursing matter: the current Student Handbook (updated July 22, 2026) names no progression committee, publishes no appeal procedure, and does not contain the word “appeal” at all. It says the College may dismiss a student “at any time, in accordance with its prescribed due process procedures” — without publishing what those procedures are. So the route and the deadline come from your decision letter and from University-level rules, not from a handbook chapter you can look up. Treat the letter as the controlling document, respond in writing immediately, and make the College state its process before the clock it is privately running has expired.

The two-registration rule — how most BSN dismissals actually happen

BSN progression turns on one published rule. Any grade below C (2.0), or an unsatisfactory (U), in a required course means the course must be repeated with a C or better. Only one nursing course may be repeated, once: a student may register for the same course twice, and a third registration is not permitted — at that point the student is subject to dismissal from the program.

The trap inside the rule is what counts as a registration. A non-medical withdrawal counts toward the two-registration limit; an approved medical withdrawal does not. A student who senses a course going badly and withdraws to protect their GPA has just spent one of two lifetime attempts — the opposite of what they intended. Whether a withdrawal is classified medical or non-medical is therefore worth real attention, in writing, at the time it happens, not a year later when the second attempt is failing.

The grading floor is exact: 74 is the minimal passing grade in the BSN program — a 73.9 is a C− and a repeat. In the DNP program the floor is a B, with 84 as the minimal passing grade, and a failed course may be repeated only once, on a space-available basis — “space available” being its own quiet contingency.

Professionalism is a technical standard — and it reaches everything

The handbook makes professionalism a technical standard every student must meet, with or without reasonable accommodations, to progress and graduate. Behavior in the classroom, online, on campus and off campus all counts. Three or more unexcused absences produce a non-passing grade in a face-to-face course. Clinical tardiness runs a published ladder: verbal warning, then a written improvement plan for course progression (IPCP) signed by student and instructor, then a third tardy treated as unprofessional behavior that can mean an unsatisfactory clinical grade — which is a course repeat, which spends a registration. Students are also held to the ANA Code of Ethics and the Florida Nurse Practice Act by name, which is how conduct familiar from ordinary student life gets evaluated in licensure language.

Fitness for duty: the burden shifts to you

The handbook’s fitness-for-duty section deserves a careful read before you respond to anything. If the College reasonably suspects a student is not fit for duty, the student is barred from classes, labs and clinicals unless and until cleared — before any finding. Once fitness is questioned, the handbook states the burden shifts to the student to demonstrate fitness. The College may ask the student to take a drug or alcohol test, be evaluated by a College-approved provider, or self-refer or accept referral to the Intervention Project for Nurses (IPN), with every cost on the student. And the handbook is explicit about the ceiling on cooperation: compliance “may pause” the dismissal process, but participation “may not prevent an academic dismissal.”

Two more lines matter. The handbook notes that having a disability does not excuse a student from professionalism standards, and routes accommodation requests through UF’s Disability Resource Center, which runs the interactive process and makes the final accommodation decisions. Where a fitness-for-duty question and a disability overlap — which is often — the Section 504 and ADA analysis runs alongside the College’s process, and what you put in writing early decides which framing controls the file.

Where a challenge actually goes

Because the College publishes no internal appeal route, the working map is built from the University’s own rules. A grade dispute starts with the course instructor, who holds grade authority. Conduct charges run under UF Regulation 4.040, where a student may bring an Advisor — expressly including a legal representative — into a disciplinary proceeding on notice. Accommodation issues run through the DRC. And an academic dismissal is answered where the letter says to answer it — which is exactly why the first written response should ask, on the record, what process applies, who decides, and by when. A College that has not published its procedure is in no position to fault a student for asking it to state one.

Where the governing documents are

Verified as loading on 19 September 2026:

• UF College of Nursing Student Handbook, full update of July 22, 2026 — nursing.ufl.edu, distributed as a .docx that can be revised in place
• Student Professionalism Policy (A-22) — nursing.ufl.edu
• UF Regulation 4.040, student conduct — policy.ufl.edu

Because the handbook is a revisable document, save a dated copy of the version in force the day the College acted, along with the decision letter itself — those two documents are what your case turns on.

The federal money on the line at UF

University of Florida students and families took on $216.1 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — $125.9 million of it borrowed unsubsidized by 5,513 graduate and professional students, with $45.7 million more in Grad PLUS loans to 2,285 of them.

Every dollar of it rides on academic standing. A dismissal, a failed Satisfactory Academic Progress evaluation, or a mid-term withdrawal sets off federal rules that decide whether aid continues, whether money already disbursed has to go back, and — under the borrowing caps in effect since July 1, 2026 — whether a student who leaves can still finance a return. For health-professional students the timing rules bite hardest: remediation terms, leaves, and repeated courses all feed the federal pace-of-completion math. The academic fight and the financial aid fight are the same fight, and the windows are short. How those rules work: SAP appeals and academic dismissal.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Data Center, Direct Loan volume by school, award year 2025–26 (cumulative through June 30, 2026). University-wide federal Direct Loan totals.

Related reading

• Nursing school dismissal
• Removal from a clinical rotation
• Section 504 and ADA accommodations
• Academic dismissal and suspension
• University of Florida — student discipline overview

Other Florida nursing and health-professional programs

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the filing deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other Florida programs:

• Florida Nursing Programs — the statewide guide
• Florida nursing programs by NCLEX pass rate
• UF College of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals
• UF College of Pharmacy — Dismissal & Appeals
• UF College of Veterinary Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals

Common questions

How long do I have to appeal a dismissal from UF College of Nursing?

The handbook publishes no appeal window — or any appeal procedure. The deadline that governs is the one in your decision letter, and where the letter states none, respond in writing within days anyway: ask what process applies, who decides, and by when, and put your factual corrections on the record at the same time.

Can I repeat a failed nursing course?

In the BSN program, one nursing course may be repeated once — two registrations for the same course, total, and a third is not permitted. A non-medical withdrawal counts as a registration; an approved medical withdrawal does not. In the DNP program a failed course may be repeated once, on a space-available basis.

What counts as passing?

A 74 is the minimal passing grade in the BSN program — below C (2.0) in any required course means repeating it. The DNP floor is a B, with 84 as the minimal passing grade.

Can the College keep me out of clinicals before deciding anything?

Yes. On reasonable suspicion that a student is not fit for duty, the handbook bars the student from classes, labs and clinicals unless and until the College clears a return — and states that the burden then rests on the student to demonstrate fitness.

If I cooperate with an IPN referral, am I safe from dismissal?

No. The handbook states that compliance may pause the academic-dismissal process, but that participation in testing, evaluation or treatment “may not prevent an academic dismissal.” Cooperation decisions deserve advice first, because they shape the record either way.