Nursing students’ perspectives on clinical education

Introduction: The importance of optimal clinical nursingeducation in professional skills development is undeniable.In clinical education, nursing students are often faced withproblems. Recognizing nursing students’ perception on clinicaleducation is the first step to remove the barriers of this challenge.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conductedto determine the nursing students’ perspectives on clinicaleducation. 150 nursing students were selected randomly fromnursing and midwifery schools (Tehran). Data collectioninstrument was a researcher made questionnaire consistingof five domains: objective and curricula, instructor, feedbackto student in clinical field, clinical environment, supervisionand evaluation. Mean and standard deviation were calculatedfor each item, using SPSS, ver. 14. Chi-square test was used tocompare the nursing students’ perspectives on clinical educationbased on age, sex and the work experience. The significance levelwas considered 0.05.Results: Mean age of the students was 21.58±26.97 students (66%)were male. 44 students (30.1%) had work experience (3.58±6.48month). Male and female students had different perceptions indomains of clinical education (p<0.05). Nursing student haddifferent perceptions as to objectives and curricula (p=0.039),how to deal with students in the clinical environment (p=0.032),supervision, and evaluation (p<0.001) with respect to their workexperience duration. The most positive responses were in clinicalinstructor (81.5%) and the most negative ones were the clinicalenvironment (33.66%), respectively.Conclusion: Providing an optimal clinical environment andimproving the supervision and evaluation of student practiceshould prioritized in schools of nursing and midwifery.Keywords: Education, Nursing, Perception, Students