Nursing and Midwifery Students Perspective on Clinical Education in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences

Introduction. Continuous evaluation is necessary for improving and promoting the quality of clinical education. The purpose of this study was to determine the views of nursing and midwifery students of Gonabad University of Medical Science about the condition of clinical education. Methods. This was a cross-sectional survey in which 140 nursing and midwifery students registered as day or night students were selected by census sampling method. They were studied using a questionnaire consisted of 4 sections about instructor’s performance, cooperation of staff, patients and students, facilities and equipments of clinical environment and clinical evaluation system. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics, t-test, Mann Whitney and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results. Most of the students evaluated the instructor’s performance, good with the mean and standard deviation of 62.3±15.7, cooperation of staff, patients and students, at a borderline level(between good and intermediate) with the mean and standard deviation of 51.4±22.4, facilities and equipments, at an intermediate level with the mean and standard deviation of 30.64±19.2 and clinical evaluation system at an intermediate level with the mean and standard deviation of 37.6±27.7. There was no significant difference between nursing and midwifery students' viewpoints about different aspects of clinical education. Conclusion. In order to improve the situation of clinical education in nursing, it is recommended to provide facilities and equipments for clinical environments and revise the tools and process of clinical evaluation. These points have been confirmed by other studies as well. Improving instructors' performance and encouraging professional cooperation could lead to the improvement of clinical education.