Evaluation of Nursing Students' Experience of Clinical Placement in a Rural Setting Using CLES+T Scale

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Rural Health
• Clinical Placements

Background:

• Limited research exists on nursing student experiences in rural clinical settings.
• Understanding these experiences is crucial for improving nursing education and rural healthcare workforce development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore undergraduate nursing students' clinical placement experiences in rural Australia.
• To identify factors influencing these experiences, focusing on the learning environment and supervision.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional observational study involving 170 undergraduate nursing students in regional Victoria, Australia.
• Data collected using the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher (CLES+T) scale post-placement.
• Logistic regression analysis used to identify factors associated with high scores.

Main Results:

• Clinical placements in rural and remote areas correlated with higher scores in learning environment and supervisory relationship domains.
• Female gender, supervision by non-educator staff, and frequent ad hoc supervision by buddy nurses were linked to higher scores in the nurse educator domain.

Conclusions:

• Nursing students value rural clinical placements, appreciating the learning environments and relationships with supervising nurses.
• Supervision by non-formal educators (e.g., buddy nurses) may enhance the student experience.
• Findings suggest a need for further investigation into optimizing rural clinical placements for nursing students.