Determining problems experienced by student nurses in their work with clinical educators in Turkey

Clinical education is considered an indispensable and vital part of nursing education. Educators have an important role in the successful completion of a student's clinical education. The clinical educator's approach, experience and knowledge have an influence on the students. Students encounter certain problems during their clinical practice under the supervision of educators. This study was conducted to determine the nature of the problems student nurses encounter during clinical training in Turkey. The focus-group interviews were used for this study. Three groups of 8, a total group of 24, composed of students completing their third year were included in the interviews. The students in this study had completed their practical training in the departments of internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, psychiatry and public health. Among the problems mostly encountered by students, as established by the study, were inadequate assessment by the clinical educator, judgment, negative feedback, communication problems, inadequate guidance and overload. At the end of the research, recommendations were that educators should offer information in the direction of student expectations, increase their positive feedback and lighten the academic workload of these students.