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The SPEF-R^© has been designed so that students are not unfairly penalized if the placement has been unable to provide sufficient relevant opportunities for the student to demonstrate competence. So therefore a rating of insufficient observation is considered a pass.

The practice educator has to decide if they have sufficient evidence to make a judgment about whether the student is passing or failing an item. If they are unable to rate the student as passing or failing they are able to use the rating of insufficient observation I/O or non applicable N/A. Which to use will be based on the relative importance of each item to the workplace.

Where the practice educator isn't convinced they have sufficient evidence to make a judgment about the student passing or failing an item but are concerned about the student's performance they may choose to rate the item as I/O but ensure they give very specific feedback about their concerns.

The key is to plan. A rating of I/O at half way is a cue to plan how to provide relevant learning experiences in the next half of the placement with the aim of enabling the practice educator to rate the item as passing or failing.

A situation that should be avoided is where a student has failed an item at half way and has had limited or no opportunity to demonstrate their competence in the second half of the placement. In this case practice educators who do not have sufficient evidence to make a judgment would be in a difficult position because a rating of I/O on this item at final evaluation would be equivalent to a pass. Once again the key is to plan ahead.

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