Change management experiences of nursing students in clinical practice: A phenomenological study

In healthcare services, nurses' roles and practices make them an integral component of the change process. Therefore, nurses should prepare for their change-creating roles during their education. However, little research regarding change management and the change creation process of nursing students is found in the literature.

To identify the needs of undergraduate nursing students when initiating change in practice and to reveal their experiences during the planning and implementation process of change projects.

A descriptive, qualitative design using focus group was conducted.

The study includes third-year undergraduate nursing students enrolled in a nursing school in Turkey and were enrolled in the Management in Nursing and Clinical Practices courses.

Six focus group were conducted with a total of 28 nursing students. Data were collected over one semester via a semi-structured form. The data were analyzed using thematic content analysis.

Regarding the change management experiences of the participants, five main themes ("changing world, changing necessities," "view from the perspective of change," "discovering resistance," "developing motivation against resistance," and "change in the perception of change"), and nine sub-themes were determined.

As a result of their change management experiences, nursing students might better contribute to the quality of patient care, think more critically and have more autonomy. Therefore, change process management should be extensively included in nursing education and should be systematically monitored.