Assessing Nurse Interns' Preparedness for Clinical Practice during Internship Year

Abstract

Background: Preparedness of nurse interns to provide safe, competent patient care is a significant concern because of increasing work demands and complexities in health care systems. Aim of the Study: This study aimed at assessing nurse interns' preparedness for clinical practice during internship year. Design: A descriptive research design was used. Settings: This study was conducted at El-Fayoum university hospitals. Subjects: The study subjects included all nurse interns (212) enrolled in the internship year (2020-2021) at El-Fayoum university hospitals. Tool of data collection: Data were collected by using a self-administered sheet, namely Nursing Practice Readiness Tool. Results: (66.5%) of nurse interns perceived a high level of total preparedness for clinical practice. Majority of nurse interns perceived a high level of preparedness for all dimensions except dimensions of professional satisfaction and stress. The highest percentage of nurse interns perceived a high level of preparedness for dimension of communication (83%) followed by professionalism (77.8%). There was statistically significant relation between level of nurse interns' total preparedness and their pre-university education. Grade of 4th year and faculty follow-up were positive predictors for nurse interns' total preparedness score meanwhile, income level was a negative predictor. Conclusion: Majority of nurse interns perceived a high level of total preparedness because nursing faculty well performed most of its roles but some improvements are needed meanwhile, healthcare settings had high defects in their roles. Recommendations: healthcare settings should provide nurse interns with productive work environment, structured orientation program and preceptorship model. To better preparedness, nursing faculty should make improvements regarding clinical placement, evaluation system, and courses of nursing curricula.