Abstract
The clinical experience prepares nursing students to become competent and professional practitioners. The evaluation of the clinical learning environment is important to determine if the clinical experience and clinical instructor provide essential learning opportunities as well as a supportive environment. This study aimed to determine the opinions of first-year nursing students about their instructors and clinical practice in the clinical education setting. The sample of the study consists of 227 students from Akdeniz University Nursing Faculty enrolled in the ‘Nursing Basics’ course. The mean age of the students was 19.30 ± 0.83, and 74% of the students stated that they were satisfied with clinical practice. During clinical applications, 70.8% of the students were guided by one nurse and one educator while 20.4% and 8.8% were accompanied with only an educator and only a nurse, respectively. A review of the opinions of the students about their educators revealed that they held positive opinions about the educators in terms of adequate theoretical knowledge (74.1%), openness to dialogue (67.9%), encouraging students to do research (62.7%), giving support to students during clinical practice (61.6%), and appreciating the positive behaviours of students (61.7%). In conclusion, it was determined that, although the students regarded the educators as competent in terms of theoretical knowledge and skill and successful in motivating, orienting, and encouraging the students, they viewed inaccessibility of educators as the leading problem.
Introduction
Nursing education provides students with fundamental knowledge, skills, and attitudes about nursing care, and this education is a combination of theoretical and practical learning experiences. A supportive clinical learning environment is vital to the success of the teaching learning process. The clinical learning environment creates many opportunities for student learning and the development of critical competencies in the nursing profession. However, this environment confronts first-year nursing students with challenges that are absent from the classroom situation and causes students to experience substantial uncertainty and anxiety. The clinical instructor is an important part of a quality clinical experience for first-year nursing students. A trusting relationship in which the instructor provides guidance creates an optimal emotional learning environment for student learning. Evaluation of student opinions and satisfaction data can lead to continuous improvements to the quality of clinical teaching. This study aimed to explore first-year nursing students’ opinions of clinical practice settings and instructors.
Section snippets
Clinical teaching for first-year students
The aim of nursing education is to provide individuals with skills and knowledge with the ability to afford high-quality nursing care (Skuladottir and Svavarsdottir, 2016). A quality nursing education is possible with intentional clinical learning experiences planned in nursing curriculum (D'Souza et al., 2013). The quality of the clinical learning environment (i.e. physical environment, teaching staff, nurses, and other health professionals) is important for the nursing students' learning and
Research population and sample
While the population of the study consisted of 269 students studying in the first year of the Akdeniz University Faculty of Nursing, the sample group consisted of 225 students who completed clinical practice and agreed to participate in the study.
Data collection and analysis
In the study, two questionnaires prepared by the researchers upon literature review were used for data collection. First questionnaire: While the first section of the questionnaire involved questions regarding demographic data of the students, there
Satisfaction of the students with clinical teaching
The average age of the students who participated in the study was determined to be 19.30 ± 0.83. A central examination is carried out for professional and school choice in Turkey; students are placed in schools according to their preferences according to their scores on this examination. Of the students who participated in the survey, 44% stated that they were the first choice in nursing faculties. While 74.0% of the students stated that they were satisfied with clinical practice, 26.1%
Clinical teaching
It was determined in the study that the students were highly satisfied with clinical teaching and also criticized the existence of differences between what was expected in the course and the real clinical setting. Henneman and Cunningham (2005) indicated there were large gaps between theoretical content taught in the classroom and the complex real world of clinical practice. Heidari and Norouzadeh (2015) stated in their study that there was a difference between expectations of health care
Conclusion
In accordance with results obtained from study, it can be asserted that instructor qualifications were positive, and the students received sufficient clinical supervision even though there was a fairly great number of students at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine. Additionally, when it was considered in the study that nurses were also involved as instructors in clinical teaching, it would be beneficial to conduct studies especially on instructive characteristics of nurses.
Ethical approval
Approval was obtained from Ethics Committee of Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine.
Conflict to interest
1.That they have contributed to, read and approved the manuscript.
2.That there has been no duplicate publication or submission of any part of the work to another journal.
3.That there is no financial arrangement or other relationship that could be construed as a conflict of interest.
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