Undergraduate nursing students’ experience of clinical supervision

Abstract

BackgroundClinical supervision plays a major role in the undergraduate nursing programme. There have been some local studies addressing clinical supervision; however, there still remains a lack of knowledge and understanding how to improve quality supervision of undergraduate nursing students. This article is based on the authors’ original thesis.ObjectivesThe objective of the study was to explore the experiences of undergraduate nursing students on clinical supervision.MethodA descriptive design with a qualitative approach using focus group interviews was used to explore the experiences of undergraduate nursing students regarding clinical supervision. Purposive sampling was used for selection of 36 participants. The participants needed to be enrolled at the institution under study, at the time of the study, as undergraduate nursing students in order to meet the inclusion criteria. The participants also needed to have worked at clinical facilities where they received clinical supervision. Nine (n = 9) students were purposively selected from each year level to participate in focus group interviews. The interviews were analysed using content analysis.ResultsThe findings indicated both positive and negative experiences regarding clinical supervision. The results were tabulated in which the positive experiences were grouped together and were separated from the negative experiences of the undergraduate students. Positive experiences included the support that was received from supervisors. These were, however, overshadowed by many comments on negative experiences concerning the behaviour and competencies of the supervisors. The findings also confirmed that the students experienced differences in the clinical procedures demonstrated by various supervisors. Negative experiences that relate to abusive behaviour such as misuse of power were also found, as well the incongruence amongst clinical supervisors regarding clinical procedures. Recommendations were proposed to enhance clinical supervision and the learning experiences of student nurses.ConclusionThe study findings suggest a need for continuous professional development for clinical supervisors by means of in-service training as well as to maintain congruence by clinical supervisors when demonstrating clinical procedures.

Nursing and midwifery students’ experiences and perception of their clinical learning environment in Malawi: A mixed method study

“…Lack of guidance and supervision may lead to nursing students learning incorrect procedures, become incompetent and lose interest in the nursing profession as they feel frustrated [46]. [15] state that professional nurses are responsible for teaching, supervising, guiding, counselling, assessing and evaluating student nurses in the clinical area. The results of this study revealed that professional nurses in the clinical setting were busy with their administrative roles and patient care but were less supportive of students.…”

“…Nursing students are evaluated in clinical learning environments where skills and knowledge are applied to patient care [5]. Nonetheless, qualitative ndings from two studies conducted in South Africa and Tanzania demonstrated that students lacked adequate clinical supervision because clinical facilitators were often not available or were spending less time with them in the clinical area [15,16].…”

Clinical teaching of undergraduate nursing students: Are the nurses in practice in Uganda ready?

“…Other criticisms are that nurses from university degree programmes struggle to "hit the ground running" and require extensive induction processes (12). The graduates from such programmes have also complained of the limited clinical exposure, limited clinical accompaniment during training and the lack of structured practical components in their degree programmes (13). These frustrations have compromised the argument supporting degree-education for nurses resulting in a need for more robust evaluation of universitybased nursing degree programmes especially in resource-limited settings like Africa.…”

Nursing and midwifery students’ experiences and perception of their clinical learning environment in Malawi: A mixed method study

“…Nursing students are evaluated in clinical learning environments where skills and knowledge are applied to patient care [6]. Nonetheless, qualitative ndings from two studies conducted in South Africa and Tanzania on nursing students experiences of clinical supervision during clinical placement, demonstrated that students lacked adequate clinical supervision because the clinical facilitators were not visiting or spent less amount of time at the facilities to supervise students [17,18].…”