View point of the nursing students on challenges in clinical training, Shiraz, Iran

Introduction: Clinical training plays an important role in nursing students curriculum programs. Some factors could affect negatively on the learning quality in clinical setting. The aim of this study was to determine the challenges of clinical training based on view point of nursing students of Shiraz University of medical sciences. Methods: This research is a descriptive study carried out in 2010. All nursing students of Shiraz University of medical sciences who had practical course participated in the study. Data was collected by using a two part questionnaire including demographic information and clinical training challenges. Collected data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent-t and ANOVA tests. Results: The most factors creating challenges in the clinical fields were related to their instructors. Other factors included environmental, nursing nature, educational system student’s skill, factors related to the patients and their own personal factors. Psychical situation of student, discrimination between nursing students with other fields in the ward, improper method of evaluation, anxiety of being affected to infectious and communicative diseases, doubt about nursing as future profession, insufficiency of clinical education were the other most important factors in the field. Conclusion: Factors related to instructors were more important than other factors in creating problems of clinical training. It is necessary to pay special attention to the students and also revise evaluation methods.