Free Essay On Passing Or Failing

Question 1

As a nursing practice teacher, one needs to ensure that students receive continuous feedback on their performance (Walsh, 2010). Besides, informing a student at midterm that he/she will fail is inadequate and reflects the poor attendance of the situation by a nursing practice teacher. According to Caputi & Engelmann (2010), it is an obligation of the student to work hard and position oneself towards achieving a good grade of the course and meeting the clinical competencies that potentially influence passing the course. Concisely, it is the responsibility of the teacher to make earlier observations about a student’s performance and share the findings with the student to address the situation.

Question 2

According to New Zealand Association for Research in Education (2012), a teacher needs to hold conferences with the student whose clinical deficiencies and performance problems may affect passing of a certain course. Often, these conferences focus on performance problems in combination with particular learning objectives for addressing the situation.in such fora, it is critical that the teacher gives the student an opportunity to give responses to the instructor’s concerns and try to provide ways of addressing them. The teacher needs to inform the student that completing the remedial activities per se is not a guarantee for passing a given course (Heaslip & Scammell, 2010). Nevertheless, the student must demonstrate satisfactory scores of the various competencies by the end of a given course with a sustainable improvement standard. Pertinently, discussions on a student’s risk of failing focuses on the learner’s inability to perform specific competencies and meeting the clinical objectives, and not on the instructor’s perceptions of overall student ability and intelligence((Duffy & Caledonian Nursing & Midwifery Research Centre, 2013).
Admittedly, there are many evaluations methods for conducting student performance assessments in the clinical practice. Advisedly, instructors need to select evaluation procedures that give information on the level of performance of students especially in clinical competencies. Essentially, a teacher bases his/her choice of the evaluation method for its intended purpose such as summative or formative evaluation (Catalano, 2011). In fact, some methods only provide feedback on areas of improvement, which are not graded. Andre (2010) observes that sometimes the nursing tests may create a bias, and a teacher needs to go an extra mile to ensure that such shortcoming does not disadvantage a student. Thus, students may be removed from the clinical study because of poor performance and as may be provided for in specific program policies.
In conclusion, teachers must share the performance observations with students and try to remedy the situation before the end of the. In addition, course each observation on the performance of a student is a reflection of a single sampling performance in a particular clinical activity. Therefore, it is essential for conducting more than a single observation before drawing any conclusion about a student’s clinical and overall abilities.

References

Andre, K. (2010). Grading student clinical practice performance: the American perspective. Nurse Education Today. doi:10.1054/nedt.2000.0493
Caputi, L., & Engelmann, L. (2010). Teaching nursing: The art and science. Glen Ellyn, IL: College of DuPage Press.
Catalano, J. T. (2011). Nursing now: Today's issues, tomorrow's trends. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Co.
Duffy, K., & Caledonian Nursing & Midwifery Research Centre. (2013). Failing students: A qualitative study of factors that influence the decisions regarding assessment of students' competence in practice. Glasgow: Caledonian Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre.
Heaslip, V., & Scammell, J. M. (2010). Failing underperforming students: The role of grading in practice assessment. Nurse Education in Practice. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2011.08.003
New Zealand Association for Research in Education. (2012). Conference papers, NZARE 2001. Rangiora, N.Z.: Author.
Walsh, D. (2010). The nurse mentor's handbook: Supporting students in clinical practice. Maidenhead, England: McGrawHill, Open University Press.