The gap in the clinical learning environment: The viewpoints of nursing students

The clinical environment is an essential and irreplaceable resource in preparing nursing students for their professional role. Despite many changes that occur in the clinical learning environment (CLE), these environments remain important to nurse training. With regard to the importance of students' viewpoints in the evaluation of CLE, this study was performed to the determination of nursing students' viewpoint of the actual and preferred CLE at Bushehr University of Medical Sciences in Iran 2013.

In this cross-sectional analytic study, due to the small size of the research population, all nursing students (86 students) of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences in Iran who had passed at least one clinical course were selected through the census. Participants were invited to complete anonymously the actual and preferred Farsi versions of the CLE Inventory consisting of 42 items originally developed by Professor Chan (2001). Data were analyzed using frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, and paired t-test.

The results indicated that there were significant differences between students' perceptions of the actual and the preferred CLE (P < 0.001). The highest and lowest mean scores of actual CLE belonged to student involvement and individualization, respectively, and the highest and lowest mean scores of preferred CLE belonged to task orientation and individualization, respectively.

In general, students prefer a more positive CLE than what they actually have experience and would prefer an environment with higher levels of clarification of personalization, student Involvement, satisfaction, task orientation, innovation, and individualization.