Nursing Students’ Views of Nursing Education Quality: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background:Nursing education is currently facing challenges related to the application of nursing knowledge in clinical environments and inability of students in application of nursing procedures in clinical settings. Nursing students themselves represent the best means of identifying these challenges. This study was conducted aimed to understand the nursing students’ viewpoints and experiences concerning the challenges and deficiencies of the nursing education system.Methods:This qualitative study that has been carried out adopting conventional qualitative content analysis approach, 40 senior nursing students with sufficient experience of educational situations participated through purposive sampling. Eight focus group discussions were done with volunteer nursing students from School of Nursing and Midwifery in Zahedan (Iran). All of the interviews and discussions were recorded and then analyzed using the conventional content analysis approach.Results:Three themes were emerged from data analysis including theoretical education, clinical skills, and the gap between theoretical education and clinical skills.Conclusions:The students’ views and experiences of nursing education quality (theoretical, clinical, and the gap between theoretical education and clinical skills) demonstrated a need to pay careful attention to the selection and recruitment of clinical teachers, and the assessment and control of their educational performance and clinical skills, as well as to determination of standards and validation of education quality.

Quality Assurance in Nursing Education: A Qualitative Study Involving Students and Newly Graduated Nurses

“…They undoubtedly deemed more relevant and useful those they could see as clearly connected with the day-to-day nursing work and those that required practical skills and techniques; these results match those of Fuentes-Pumarola et al [20]. Kermansaravi et al [32] found that students liked theoretical contents that had applied value; otherwise studying them was a waste of time. We can state that there was a preference for biomedical courses, which could contrast/contradict the long struggle of nursing to carry out the conceptual and theoretical framework change in nursing training, as opposed to the traditional biomedical model [35].…”

“…The interviewees were disappointed in seeing nursing staff who did not provide care based on the latest scientific evidence, as they learned in university. Several authors found differences between what students learned at university and what they later saw in the healthcare settings [9,14,20,31,32]. The literature also suggests that idealized care and actual care act like two opposing forces that graduates try to counterbalance [33,34].…”

Nursing Students' Experiences of Clinical Education: A Qualitative Study

“…Poor educational planning, wasting the time of students in the clinical education and inadequate preparation of educators and students in clinical education was another undesirable experience of nursing students from clinical education in nursing. Kermansaravi et al (17) in their study, showed that the job description of the students in some sections are not clear and the educational planning is not in a desirable condition. Some of the participating students in the study stated that the undesirable planning of their apprenticeship and clinical education wastes their time in the clinical education environment.…”

<p>Job Satisfaction Challenges Of Nurses In The Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Study</p>

“…Considering the special nature of nursing profession, it is necessary for the learners of this profession to have a real understanding of material content so that they are competent in specific clinical situations to use their learnings; using active educational methods is significantly effective in increasing deep thinking skills and stability of materials in the students' minds. 13 Participatory education has the best effect on the change in nurses' performance [14][15][16] also, learning in the workplace, which can be formal and informal, is one of the most powerful training methods; also, the workplace is one of the most appropriate teaching and learning settings. 17 However, the education staff is a very strategical and important issue as the foundation for the development of any organization, which contributes to the dynamics of the organization.…”