An International Scoping Exercise Examining Practice Experience Hours Completed by Nursing Students

Abstract

Background: There is global acceptance of the need for prelicensure nursing students to complete practice experience hours during their program of education. Yet questions remain about these practice experiences, including those related to duration. Method: This article reports findings of a scoping exercise that compared the number of practice experience hours mandated for students undertaking courses that lead to RN licensure in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Results: Substantial differences were evident between the four countries regarding the number of mandated practice experience hours. There is no clearly linked research evidence to justify the decision made in relation to the mandated number of hours. Conclusion: Internationally, there is a need to reexamine the rationale for mandating a minimum number of practice experience hours for students in programs of education that lead to licensing as an RN. [ J Nurs Educ . 2019;58(1):33–41.]

Innovations in Nursing Education in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

“…This was attributable to the vast differences in the required clinical hours worldwide (E. Miller & Cooper, 2016;Roberts et al, 2019). For example, in the United States, clinical hours vary from state to state, with no minimum hours stipulated by the regulatory boards (Hungerford et al, 2019). Replacing clinical hours and face-to-face teaching with simulation requires regulation to ensure uniformity in nursing education standards.…”

A New Framework for Practice–Academic Partnerships During the Pandemic—and into the Future

“…4 We don't have data on the minimum number of hours of clinical experience that RN or LPN programs should have, though we do know that the United States lags behind other countries in the number of clinical hours required of prelicensure students. 8 When the pandemic caused practice settings to close their doors to nursing students, many nursing programs, after consultation with their BONs, began to use simulation with social distancing or virtual simulation or both, 2 simply because there were no other options. A groundbreaking randomized controlled study of RN education programs found that they could substitute up to 50% simulation for clinical experiences without adversely affecting outcomes.…”

“…A recent large, mixed-methods study of nursing education found that clinical experiences with actual patients are critical to prelicensure nursing education 4. We don't have data on the minimum number of hours of clinical experience that RN or LPN programs should have, though we do know that the United States lags behind other countries in the number of clinical hours required of prelicensure students 8…”

NCSBN Regulatory Guidelines and Evidence-Based Quality Indicators for Nursing Education Programs

“…There is consensus in the international literature that quality, direct-care clinical experiences with actual patients are the foundation of quality nursing education (Beauvais et al, 2017;Benner et al, 2010;Candela & Bowles, 2008;El Haddad et al, 2017;Hungerford et al, 2019;Jamshidi et al, 2016;Kavanagh & Szweda, 2017;Killam et al, 2011;NCSBN, 2005;Spector et al, 2018) and other professional programs (Luhanga et al, 2014). Similarly, nurse regulators recognize clinical experiences with actual patients are an integral part of the program approval process in the United States and Canada (Alexander, 2019;College of Nurses of Ontario, 2018;Hooper & Ayars, 2017).…”

“…In an integrative literature review of 50 articles, Hickerson et al (2016) reported that novice nurses believed nursing programs should devote more hours to clinical experiences. Hungerford et al (2019) conducted a scoping review of four countries' clinical hours and found disparity among clinical hour requirements with little evidence to support any of them. * They suggest further research to determine the number of practice experience hours needed and how to ensure the practice hours experienced are of a high quality (Hungerford et al, 2019, p. 39).…”