Faculty perceptions of characteristics needed for clinical success at military nurse anesthesia programs.

In this exploratory descriptive study, an investigator-developed survey tool was used to describe military clinical faculty's perception of the characteristics that nurse anesthesia students need for success in the clinical portion of graduate education. Study participants consisted of 29 clinical faculty from the Army, Air Force, and Navy (100% response). The survey tool consisted of a quantitative part with 35 characteristics in 4 categories: academic knowledge, nursing knowledge, clinical skills, and personal characteristics. Seven qualitative questions made up the second part of the survey. The faculty rated 28 of the 35 characteristics as essential or important for clinical success. All categories contained characteristics rated important or higher, with personal characteristics and clinical awareness receiving the highest ratings. Qualitative analysis of the 7 additional questions further supported the importance of personal characteristics and clinical awareness. The findings give a description of the successful student as perceived by faculty. If a student successfully completes the didactic portion of the education, personal characteristics and clinical awareness have a large role in success in the clinical portion. Knowing what characteristics are thought important allows the characteristics to be studied further. With the emphasis in this study on personal characteristics, ways to assess the difficult-to-measure personal traits need to be developed.