Document Type

Dissertation

Title

Examining Factors Associated with Failure to Fail in the Clinical Setting

Authors

Dee A. Adkins, Nova Southeastern University

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing Education

Copyright Statement

All rights reserved. This publication is intended for use solely by faculty, students, and staff of Nova Southeastern University. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, now known or later developed, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or the publisher.

Department

College of Nursing

First Advisor

Julia Aucoin

Second Advisor

Tracy A Ortelli

Third Advisor

Jayson L Dibble

Publication Date / Copyright Date

2020

Publisher

Nova Southeastern University

NSUWorks Citation

Dee A. Adkins. 2020. Examining Factors Associated with Failure to Fail in the Clinical Setting. Doctoral dissertation. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, College of Nursing. (82)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_con_stuetd/82.

Abstract

Clinical nursing faculties 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 the faculty’s decision-making process. The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship between face-implicating factors and the faculty’s likelihood of failing students in the clinical setting who do not meet the passing criteria. What is the relationship between face-implicating factors and the nursing faculty’s likelihood of passing students in the clinical setting who do not meet the passing criteria? The research design was guided by Rosen and Tesser’s MUM effect (1970). A quantitative, descriptive design with snowball sampling was used. The instrument was developed and validated in a previous study (Dibble, 2014) and adapted for relevance to the nursing audience. Respondents who did not commit failure to fail (F2FN) disagreed more strongly with every survey item than those who did commit failure to fail (F2FY). The differences in mean scores were compared, and 64 percent 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. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected; a direct connection was found between face-implicating factors and the faculty’s likelihood of passing students in the clinical setting who do not meet the passing criteria.

Disciplines

Nursing

Keywords

Clinical evaluation, Critical conversations, Failure to fail, Moral distress, MUM effect, Nursing student evaluation

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