I would like to know why it is that I am unable to work with a date field/column from an Access database and a parameter.

I know, from past attempts, that if I create a parameter to update a date field that if the parameter value is null then the query will fail to execute.

Code:
UPDATE MyTable SET column=@date
i.e. if @date is null then the query will fail.

I am weary with working around this problem. Can I do something to mitigate this issue. I have looked for answers, but have been unable to find anything that addresses this.