Clinical learning environment inventory: factor analysis.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education Research
• Educational Psychology
• Healthcare Professional Development

Background:

• The clinical learning environment significantly impacts student engagement and learning experiences.
• The Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI) is a 42-item self-report tool assessing student perceptions across six scales.
• The CLEI was designed to evaluate undergraduate nursing students' views of clinical placements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct psychometric testing of the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory.
• To explore and validate the factor structure of the CLEI using principal components analysis.
• To refine the CLEI based on empirical data and theoretical advancements.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal data collected from 659 Bachelor of Nursing students across two Australian university campuses (2006-2008).
• Principal components analysis with varimax rotation applied to the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory data.
• Analysis focused on a subset of 513 students whose data were eligible for inclusion.

Main Results:

• A six-factor solution explained 51% of the variance in student perceptions.
• Identified factors include: student-centredness, affordances and engagement, individualization, fostering workplace learning, valuing nurses' work, and innovative/adaptive workplace culture.
• The identified factors were evaluated against current theoretical literature on clinical learning environments.

Conclusions:

• The study provides an empirically supported and theoretically grounded extension of the original Clinical Learning Environment Inventory.
• This revised structure moves beyond previous ad hoc item clustering and internal reliability measures.
• Further investigation is recommended to confirm the stability and consistency of the newly identified factors.