challenges of clinical education for Iranian undergraduate nursing students: A review of the literature

Introduction: Considering the nurses' role in promoting community health and clinical education in shaping the necessary skills and professional competencies of nursing students, it is necessary to examine the clinical education environment's challenges. Identifying the challenges of clinical education helps to eliminate or correct weaknesses and can improve the achievement of educational goals, train skilled people, and provide higher quality care services. Methods: This review study was conducted by searching for the keywords of " challenge," "nursing students," "clinical education" in articles published in Persian language databases SID, irandoc, Magiran from 2001 to 2019. Inclusion criteria were Persian-language articles, technical articles in the field of nursing, and articles that examined nursing, along with several other disciplines. From a total of 245 articles found, 23 articles related to the article's purpose were selected after considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: The challenges of clinical education have been identified in six primary areas, which include: 1) Insufficient mastery of instructors in clinical departments 2) Insufficient student readiness to enter internship 3) Lack of staff support for students 4) Lack of a written educational program for Clinical education 5) Lack of an exact model for clinical evaluation 6) Lack of cooperation and trust of patients in relevant students. Conclusions: These findings indicate the need to pay attention to clinical education as a significant part of professional nursing education by considering clinical education challenges in nursing students' clinical education environment.