Failure to fail – Factors affecting faculty decisions to pass underperforming nursing students in the clinical setting: A quantitative study

Abstract

AimThe purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between face-implicating factors and faculty’s likelihood of failing students in the clinical setting who do not meet passing criteria. BackgroundClinical nursing faculty members struggle to assign failing grades to underperforming students in the clinical setting; this is known as failure to fail. Qualitative literature has revealed common factors for failure to fail; however, quantitative studies are required to determine the extent to which those factors affect faculty’s decision-making process. DesignA quantitative, descriptive design was used. MethodsSnowball sampling was used to recruit participants from CCNE- and ACEN-accredited nursing programs to complete an online survey. There were 353 responses to the survey (a 30% return rate) and 327 usable responses. Eligibility criteria included pre-licensure nursing faculty members who had taught in the clinical setting within the past three years. The tool used for the study was adapted from Dibble’s (2014) tool, which explored face-implicating factors’ impact on the transmission of bad news. ResultsRespondents who did not commit failure to fail (F2FN) disagreed more strongly with every survey item than those who committed failure to fail (F2FY). The differences in mean scores were compared and 64% of those differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Respondents who did not commit failure to fail were less affected by the face-implicating factors than those who committed failure to fail. Conclusionsthe null hypothesis was rejected; a direct connection was found between face-implicating factors and faculty’s likelihood of passing students in the clinical setting who do not meet passing criteria.