First Clinical Placement: Nursing Students’ Views

Objective: Analyzing students’ experiences about clinical practice will help instructors prepare learning settings where students can have more positive experiences. The purpose of this article is to identify nursing students’ views regarding their clinical placement. Method: This descriptive study was conducted with fresher’s in a nursing department of university during spring term of the 2014-2015 academic year in Ankara/Turkey. The data was collected with the question forms prepared by the researchers after the final exam of the “Fundamentals of Nursing Course”. 253 students were provided questionnaires to answer, which were collected after completion. Results: Students mean age was 20.2; 85.4% of them were female and 40.3% of them choose this department for employment opportunities. Students evaluated professional competence and presence of nurses, as “Good” and “Very Good” (with 80% to 90%) and, communication between nurse and patient as “Moderate” and “Bad” (with 60%). Prejudices regarding clinical practice (with 38.7%), fear of making mistake (with 55.3%), prejudices toward clinical setting (with 58.5%), and grade anxiety (with 29.2%) were stated as factors that affect clinical learning negatively. Conclusion: Students’ learning was affected by healthcare professions especially nurses, they worked with, instructors as well as some factors stem from themselves (fear of making a mistake, grade anxiety).