Are Norwegian mentors failing to fail nursing students?

It is highly important that nursing students are well educated and become safe and competent practitioners. This article presents the findings from a quantitative study investigating if Norwegian mentors fail to fail nursing students not achieving the learning outcomes in clinical studies in the bachelor's programme in nursing, in addition to the factors influencing their decisions. A survey was conducted among nurse mentors in hospital- and home-based nursing care in two Norwegian municipalities, and 561 nurses answered the questionnaire. The findings indicate that mentors sometimes fail to fail nursing students in clinical studies. Important factors influencing this decision were that the students did not put the patient's life at risk and that the mentors gave the student the benefit of the doubt. The mentors in our study thought that failing to fail students was not related to personal challenges and burdens. They also felt a lack of support from the educational institution. The findings suggest some future directions for nurse education programmes. The training of mentors, especially in managing failing students, and better support from liaison lecturers from the educational institution are important. It is also suggested that nurse education programmes together with mentors discuss the distinction between unsafe practices and learning outcomes for clinical studies.