Student discontinuations: is the system failing?

Are nurse educators guilty of hypocrisy? While espousing holism and evidence-based practice, we may be neglecting to support the most distressed and vulnerable in our care--students. Student discontinuation arouses strong emotions, which need to be expressed and resolved. These are often unresolved leaving students and educators frustrated and alienated in 'failure'. Although it cannot be expected that all students will succeed as professionals and academic standards must be maintained, those who fail have a right to expect fairness. With the advent of Subject Quality Review (formally TQA) institutions of higher education may be asked to demonstrate their operational mechanisms for 'managing' the process of student failure. Now would be the best time for departments of nurse education to reflect on experience, review attrition rates and learn from each other in order to establish a model of best practice. Such a review may generate the formulation of national guidelines, safe guarding against the looming threat of litigation.