Nursing students' experiences and preferences regarding hospital and community placements

The quality of practice placements is important in the development of competent and confident professional nurses. In placements, students develop and master the attributes of professional caring, situational knowledge, competence and clinical skills through experiencing nursing in the real world. Student's experience of their placements can be mixed with some students having both positive and negative experiences. This paper reports a survey evaluating undergraduate nursing students' experience of their practice placements in one higher education institution (HEI) in Wales, United Kingdom (U.K.), with a focus on their perceptions of community placements. 440 usable responses were obtained from a possible 455 student evaluations (97%). Students were more likely to express a positive view of district nursing, intensive care, high dependency and cardiology placements, whilst evaluating health visiting and older adult placements less positively. This is discussed by suggesting that those placements perceived as more popular offer students a closer relationship with their mentors together with a positive acculturation into the community of nursing and the opportunity to practice and master clinical skills. Students' preference for district nursing rather than health visiting suggests the timing, type and preparation of students for community placements should be reviewed further.