Overcoming the challenges of providing clinical/practice education

The responsibility of educating increasing numbers of students presents major challenges for nursing education. The Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) established a task force to examine the issues and barriers associated with provision of clinical/practice education for nursing students and to assist in the development of national guidelines for practice education. In this article, the authors present key findings and recommendations resulting from a literature review, a survey of member schools and a national forum on clinical practice education. All schools of nursing are encouraged to continue to develop innovative ways of providing practice experience to meet growing demands.