Assessment of Clinical Practical Setting as Perceived by Nursing Students and the Faculty Staff Assistants

Abstract

Quality and safety of health care is a global concern. These considerations dependent on proficient staff and adequate resources being available within clinical areas. Further to this, quality and safe health care relies on the effective educational preparation of nurses. In particular, consideration needs to be given to creating clinical contexts where students learn to integrate their theoretical knowledge with practice. Clinical settings that encourage staff and students to learn through applying and reflecting on their knowledge and practice can assist experienced nurses to question and explore their own practices (Crotty, 2010). This study was aimed to assess the clinical practical setting as perceived by nursing students and faculty staff assistants and comparing between the perceptions of the two subject groups. This study was carried out at two settings. The first setting was three educational departments and the skill labs affiliated to Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University, where skills were taught and trained. These include the following: Medical Surgical Nursing Departments, Maternity and gynecology Nursing Department and Pediatric Nursing Department, Medical Surgical Lab, Obstetric Lab, and Pediatric Lab.The second setting wasAin-Shams University Hospitals where nursing students are having their training.These include the following: Ain-Shams University Hospital & El-demerdash Hospital for 2nd year students and Obstetrics and gynecology Hospital & Pediatric Hospital for 3rd year students. The subjects of this study included two groups, namely nursing students and faculty staff assistants group. The first group wasone hundred forty seven (147) nursing students out of (237) students from the 2nd year, In addition to one hundred sixty (160) nursing students out of (271) students from 3rd year were included in the study sample. The second group was allthe available faculty staff assistants in the aforementioned departments during the time of the study. The total number of faculty staff assistants is (40).This group divided into (24) assistant lecturers and (16) demonstrators. Data for this study were collected by using questionnaire sheet for assessing the clinical practical setting as perceived by nursing students and questionnaire sheet for assessing the clinical practical setting as perceived by faculty staff assistants. The main study findings revealed the following: There was highly statisticallysignificant differencebetween nursing students and faculty staffassistants'perception on the presence of equipment & supplies, task orientation, personalization, student involvement and student satisfaction. There was highly statistically significant differencebetween faculty staff assistants'perception and their age as regard hospital &external units, personalization and student involvement (P<0.01). There was highly statistically significant relation between nursing students' perception and their department as regard equipment & supplies, manpower, task orientation, personalization, student satisfaction (P<0.01). Based on the study findings, it recommended thatcontinuous assessment of the clinical practical setting, continuous support and reward from the faculty for nursing team for their vital role in nursing students training and further studies is recommended for developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the selection of clinical practical setting for nursing students.