"Failing to Fail:"
Implications for Nursing and Patient Safety
![Picture](/uploads/2/3/7/1/23716309/783633.jpg?189)
In passing underperforming, or worse yet, dangerous students, educators/preceptors are abdicating their obligation to the profession.
The nursing profession is only as strong as its members. If educators/ preceptors keep pushing students through who have not earned their passing grades, they are weakening the nursing profession. Educators/ preceptors might pass a student who they thought was a borderline student and then be forced to give them a bad evaluation for a potential employer. This creates a difficult conversation in which the educator might have to defend passing the student and yet, not want to work with them. If these students are pushed through the system and hired, they are expected to hit the ground running (Wolff, Regan, Pesut & Black, 2010).
Very little time can be afforded to on the job training for new staff with budgets being as tight as they are now. Staff shortages and fewer experienced nurses increase the demand for new graduates to start working immediately at a level beyond their capability leading to concerns about their ability to provide safe care.
All these reasons point to potentially bad outcomes for patients being cared for by these newly minted nurses. Poorly prepared RN's may have a great attitude, but may be unable to deal with the intricacies of challenging patients; or they might have a bad attitude and know what to do, but be reluctant to do so as it is a lot of work. Every RN has received patients from the previous shift who complain they never saw anyone the entire shift. Patient safety and the reputation of the profession are both put at risk when students are put into the work force without having garnered the knowledge and skill set in their clinical training. Without the ability to critically think through a problem and ask for help when it exceeds their knowledge, educators/ preceptors are placing the patient and the new nurse in a potentially dangerous position.