Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Research Article Training Nursing Skills: A Quantitative Study of Nursing Students’ Experiences before and after Clinical Practice
Elisabeth Solvik and Solveig Struksnes
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Department of Health Sciences Gjøvik, NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Postboks 191, 2802 Gjøvik, Norway
Correspondence should be addressed to Solveig Struksnes; solveig.struksnes@ntnu.no
Received 15 August 2017; Revised 3 December 2017; Accepted 18 January 2018; Published 11 March 2018
Academic Editor: Florence Luhanga
Copyright © 2018 Elisabeth Solvik and Solveig Struksnes. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Introduction. Requirements for Patient Safety suggest that students encounter patients well prepared. In clinical laboratory practice (CLP), the students simulate patient situations as a preparation for internship. Various CLP models have been tried out to meet the students’ prerequisites and learning strategies. Objectives. The purpose of this study was to try out two different learning sessions related to the bed bath procedure. Design and Methods. The study has a descriptive, quantitative design with elements from clinically controlled trials. Sample. The population of 160 first-year students was randomly divided into two classes. Questionnaires. Two questionnaires were answered with six-month intervals: Form 1 immediately after the first training session and Form 2 a short time after clinical practice. Findings.
A majority of the nursing students reported that the exercises in the clinical lab were a good way to prepare for the practice, although most of them did not perceive that the procedure conducted at the university resembled how it is conducted in clinical practice. Age or level of discomfort related to organization of the skills training did not have impact on the students’ confidence in mastering bed bath in clinical practice. Students without previous experience were less confident to master the procedure in clinical practice, but the results evened out during the internship. Conclusions. The results from this study could indicate that the students’ age to a larger extent should be considered in the universities’ facilitation of nursing students’ clinical preparations, to improve the transition to “real life” as smoothly and meaningfully as possible to nursing students.
substantial part of teaching efforts
1. Introduction
The practice field is a significant learning arena for nursing students in Norway, as half of the bachelor’s program takes place in clinical practice [1]. Thus, preparations for the stu- dents’ meeting with real patients constitute a substantial part of teaching efforts within the university. The comprehension of the transfer value of these preparations when it comes to clinical practice probably has an impact on students’ achievements in the field of practice [2]. It has been argued that nursing education is inadequate in preparing students for practice and contributes to burnout syndrome among nurses and an earlier retirement from the profession [3, 4].
Nursing students have various backgrounds and differ- ent prerequisites for goal achievement in accordance with the National Curriculum of Nursing [1]. Requirements for Patient Safety [5] suggest that students encounter patients well prepared and with the proper knowledge and practical
