Impact of clinical supervision on field training of nursing students at Urmia University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Obtaining clinical competency in clinical educationis one of the problems in nursing and use of the new methods ofclinical training is very important. Clinical supervision is one ofthe methods used as a mechanism to promote knowledge and skillfor promoting professional performance in nursing students. Thisstudy is carried out to determine the impact of clinical supervisionon field training of nursing students at Urmia University ofMedical Sciences.Methods: In the present experimental study, 32 nursing studentswere enrolled in the study based on census and randomlyassigned into two groups of experimental and control by blockrandomization. Clinical supervision was used in the experimentalgroup and the control group received routine clinical trainingsin the field. The students’ clinical skills were assessed using aresearcher-made checklist, the validity of which was confirmedthrough content validity method by 13 faculty members andits reliability was approved by test-retest method on 20 nursingstudents in the form of a pilot study and through Cronbach’s alpha(87%). Data were analyzed using SPSS, version 14.Results: There was a significant difference between theexperimental and control groups in clinical skills such asrecognition and administration of medication, team participation,patients and their relatives’ education, considering the safety,infection prevention and nursing process (p<0.005).Conclusion: The study demonstrated that in clinical supervisionprocess, students have a better communication and cooperationwith their instructor and with each other and their confidence andunderstanding and the amount of learning in practical skills wasenhanced more than routine clinical training. The implementationof this clinical training method for students of nursing and otherfields of medical sciences is recommendable.Keywords: Clinical; Nursing; Training; Students