Failure to fail - Factors affecting faculty decisions to pass underperforming nursing students in the clinical...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Clinical Pedagogy
• Academic Integrity

Background:

• Clinical nursing faculty face challenges in failing underperforming students, a phenomenon termed 'failure to fail'.
• Previous qualitative research identified contributing factors, but quantitative data on their impact is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively explore the relationship between face-implicating factors and nursing faculty's decisions regarding failing students in clinical settings.
• To determine the extent to which face-implicating factors influence the 'failure to fail' phenomenon.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative, descriptive study utilizing an online survey.
• Snowball sampling recruited 327 pre-licensure nursing faculty from accredited programs.
• Survey tool adapted from research on face-implicating factors in bad news transmission.

Main Results:

• Faculty who did not 'fail to fail' students showed stronger disagreement with survey items compared to those who did.
• Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in 64% of mean score comparisons.
• Non-failing faculty were less influenced by face-implicating factors than faculty who passed students not meeting criteria.

Conclusions:

• A direct connection exists between face-implicating factors and the likelihood of faculty passing students who do not meet clinical performance criteria.
• The null hypothesis was rejected, confirming the influence of these factors on academic decisions.
• Findings highlight the need to address these factors to ensure academic integrity in nursing education.