Academic training and clinical placement problems to achieve nursing competency

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Quality
• Professional Competency

Background:

• High-quality nursing care is contingent upon nurse competency.
• This study investigates challenges in academic and clinical training for nursing competency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify problems in nursing academic training and clinical practice affecting competency.
• To gather perspectives from nurses, faculty, and students on these issues.

Main Methods:

• Analytical cross-sectional study involving academic staff, nursing students, and practicing nurses.
• Utilized a researcher-made questionnaire assessing theoretical-clinical and clinical functions (reliability 0.72-0.73).
• Employed descriptive and analytical statistics via SPSS software.

Main Results:

• Major academic issues: lack of clinical research (88.9%), poor application of nursing process theory (85.6%), inadequate educators (81.1%), and traditional ward methods (75.6%).
• Key clinical challenges: insufficient time for knowledge application due to workload (86.5%), weak encouragement systems (85.2%), and theory-practice gap post-graduation (75.6%).

Conclusions:

• A significant gap exists between theoretical knowledge and practical clinical function in nursing.
• Improving nursing training requires bridging this gap in both educational and work environments.