The Viewpoint of Senior Nursing Students of Qom Branch of Islamic Azad University about Clinical Training Problems

Background and Objectives: Education is a complicated process, which any simplistic approach to it can lead to waste of forces and facilities and lack of access to educational goals. This issue is of great importance in nursing education. Thus, the present research was performed to investigate the problems of clinical education of nursing students in Islamic Azad University, Qom branch.   Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 75 nursing students in the final semester. The sampling was done using census method. Data collection was performed using a researcher-made questionnaire that its validity and reliability had been confirmed. The students responded in terms of different challenges in 6 domains, including aims and educational program, clinical evaluation, educational environment, trainer, and communication with student.   Results: In this study, most of the problems were related to not paying attention to the student’ point of view in apprenticeship programming, students unawareness of manner of clinical evaluation at the beginning of the period, unsuitable number of student, causing stress in the student by trainer, low number of patients, and lack of student’s decision making power in the planning for patient care. The most important problem in all areas was the high number of students in the ward.   Conclusion: Realization of the aims of nursing education goals requires optimal planning in each effective factors (aims, content, trainers, and evaluation) in clinical education. Therefore, improvement of existing problems and barriers is possible by cooperation between trainers, employees, and related authorities.