Exploring the meaning of undergraduate nursing students' experiences and confidence in clinical skills using video

Students and health care faculty staff report a lack of confidence in graduating nurses' clinical skills practice. Traditional approaches to support nursing students' clinical skills development have relied on small group, face-to-face, practice-based learning in clinical laboratories. However, with changing curricula, increased numbers of students, and pressure on laboratory timetables and availability, alternate methods of delivery are necessary to ensure students gain confidence in the development of their clinical skills. Video podcasting is an innovative approach that is being used to stimulate active and ongoing learning of clinical skills.

A hermeneutic phenomenological approach.

Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 10 second-year, undergraduate nursing students about their experiences using three clinical skills video podcasts and their perceptions of how this impacted on their learning of these clinical skills and confidence in practice.

Three themes emerged from the data: 'Accessibility for learning the skill'; 'Preparation for learning and practice'; and 'Student-directed learning'. These themes provided an insight into the students' engagement with video podcasts, demonstrating their sense of confidence was increased in clinical skills development.

The findings of this study provide an insight into the students' engagement with video podcasts in relation to their confidence in clinical skills development, and indicate that undergraduate nursing students value the use of video podcasts in their learning of clinical skills. However, it was evident that students still value face-to-face delivery to guide their study, which suggests that video podcasts could be used as an adjunct to teaching to support learning.