Being There: Prelicensure Students' Perceptions of Nursing Presence During Clinical Learning Experiences

Nursing presence is defined as the physical and emotional availability of the nurse to the patient. Intentional presence is essential to person-centered nursing care. Increased use of technology during care could potentially threaten the humanistic connection between the nurse and patient. Few studies have explored presence from a student perspective. This study explored prelicensure nursing students' perceptions of nursing presence during a clinical learning experience.

Nursing presence as an intervention was discussed during the first-level medical-surgical nursing course. Students (N = 32) answered open-ended questions about their perceptions of nursing presence during their clinical learning experience. The 12 items from the Presence of Nursing Scale-RN Being With subscale served as the codebook to guide the analysis.

Students identified 106 examples of nursing presence, representing all 12 items on the Being With sub-scale.

Teaching students about nursing presence can serve as the foundation for person-centered nursing care.