Undergraduate Nursing Student Perspectives About Challenges in Clinical Education in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study

Introduction: Clinical education is an essential element in a baccalaureate nursing program, providing nursing students with the required knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes that are required to deliver professional nursing care after graduation. Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the student perceived challenges associated with nursing instruction in the clinical environment. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was used to identify the challenges associated with clinical instruction from the nursing students’ perspective. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 187 nursing students from three universities in Jordan, including one public and two private. Results: The major challenges to clinical education were fear of committing mistakes; lack of facilities for students; lack of knowledge among community and patients about the nursing profession; fear of infection; lack of availability of equipment in the clinical setting; students’ lack of preparedness and skills in planning care; and lack of collaboration from clinical staff. Conclusion: Identifying the challenges is necessary to formulate strategies to address them, to improve curriculum designed and clinical education for nursing students accordingly.

Improving Physical Assessment and Clinical Judgment Skills without Increasing Content in a Prelicensure Nursing Health Assessment Course

One hundred twenty-six assessment skills are taught in prelicensure nursing health assessment courses, yet 30 skills are used on a routine basis in practice. New nurses struggle to apply their acquired knowledge in clinical settings. Method: A literature review was completed. Based on the results, a first semester health assessment course in a southeastern accelerated baccalaureate nursing program was redesigned. Lectures and skills labs were adjusted to focus on the most critical assessment skills. To foster critical thinking and clinical judgement, a health assessment post conference was added where students completed concept maps, system specific case studies, nursing priority setting, and patient teaching plans. Results: Outcome surveys were completed by second semester faculty. Prior to course adjustments, 33 percent of students did not meet the benchmark. Following course changes, all students met or exceeded the benchmark. Conclusion: Focusing on critical assessment skills will increase student nurses’ ability to deliver safe patient care.

A first-year, first-semester observership placement to increase nursing students’ satisfaction

This paper reports on a two-day nursing observership in the first semester of an undergraduate baccalaureate-nursing program in an Australian university. Of the 392 novice student nurses who completed the observership, 340 provided a written reflection on their experience. The qualitative data were analysed using constant comparative analysis from which four themes were identified. Student nurses reported that the observership provided them with an insight into the nursing world (66.4%), was a revelation (46.4%), met their expectations (16.4%), and was transformative (7.3%). These themes indicated that an observership at the start of a nursing student’s study can provide a professional socialisation experience, link new knowledge to practice, and ease that transition into nursing study. The implication for practice for nurse educators is to consider innovative approaches such as an observership to overcome challenges that first-year nursing students reportedly experience.