Experiences of undergraduate nursing students during their clinical practice in selected nursing institutes in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: In nursing education, clinical training provides opportunities for application of theoretical knowledge to day to day practice in patient care.Objective: The study was conducted to explore nursing students’ perception and experiences of their clinical learning environment in selected nursing institutes in Bangladesh.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among a total of 400 nursing students, who were selected using non-probability purposive sampling technique. Data were collected from three nursing institutes in Bangladesh both in public and private sectors, during the period of July 2019 to September 2019, using Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher (CLES+T) evaluation scale.Results: Of the total respondents majority (94.5%) were female, 18% were from public university, 46.3% were from government nursing college and 35.8% were from private nursing college. The results also indicated that most (41.8%) of the students experienced group supervision, while 33% students experienced successful supervision and 24.5% learned on their own. Most (44.3%) students were supervised 1-3 times during their clinical practice and equal number (36.8%) of students reported they had interaction with nurse teacher 1-3 times and more than 9 times during their clinical practice. Strong associations were found between all the socio-demographic characteristics of the students and experience of clinical learning environment except sex. The results also revealed strong associations between all the clinical characteristics of the students and experience of clinical learning environment.Conclusion: This study has shown that clinical practice had inadequately prepared students for the nursing profession in selected institutions in Bangladesh. Appropriate policy and strategy needs to be undertaken by competent authority to improve the clinical learning environment for effective clinical learning of the nursing students. Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2021; 47(3): 308-317