Nursing Students’ Perspectives on Actual and Ideal Support and Supervision in Clinical Learning Environments in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in 2011

Introduction: Clinical learning environment has an important role in clinical learning of nursing students. Any differences between students’ perspectives in expected and actual environment may result in decreased clinical learning. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare nursing students’ perspectives on actual and ideal support and supervision in clinical setting. Methods: In this descriptive study a census sample of 96 nursing students in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences were chosen. For data gathering, the actual and ideal parallel forms of "Perception of Extent of Support and Supervision Survey" were used. Each form has 29 items in two support and supervision subscales. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: There were statistical differences between actual and ideal perception of nursing students in support and supervision domains, so that in support domain, the expectation of nursing students was not met by clinical instructors and in supervision domain, the actual degree of supervision is greater than the students' expectation (p> .000). Conclusion: There is a gap between actual and ideal perception of nursing students about support and supervision in clinical setting. This gap may have negative effects on clinical learning of students.