The clinical component of undergraduate clinical education is a critical area in nursing programs. Faculty shortages have made recruitment of clinical faculty and clinical teaching more challenging. As such, alternate models of clinical faculty assignments are being explored to address faculty shortages. This article contains an extensive literature review conducted to survey models of clinical education and student satisfaction with the clinical environment. The purpose of this paper is to examine student satisfaction in the clinical learning environment using articles employing the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI) along with examining the use of alternate clinical staffing models in differing levels of undergraduate nursing students. A literature search focusing on studies published between 2002 and 2015 was conducted from 5 electronic databases. Thirty-five articles were reviewed and 22 were selected for this literature review. The studies reviewed concluded that students favored a more positive and favorable clinical environment than they perceived as being actually present. A supportive clinical learning environment is of paramount importance in securing positive teaching learning outcomes. Nurse educators can apply the results of this review in order to develop and maintain quality clinical teaching and to promote a positive, student-centric, clinical learning environment.

Students often enter an introductory statistics class with less than positive attitudes about the subject. They tend to believe statistics is difficult and irrelevant to their lives. Observational evidence from previous studies suggests including projects in a statistics course may enhance students' attitudes toward statistics. This study examines the relationship between inclusion of a student-designed data collection project in an introductory statistics course and 6 components comprising students' attitudes toward statistics. The sample consisted of 42 college students enrolled in an introductory statistics course. Comparisons of those who completed the student-designed data collection project (n = 24) and those who did not complete the project (n = 18) suggest that inclusion of a project may not significantly impact students' attitudes toward statistics. However, these findings must be viewed as only a preliminary step in the study of the effect of projects on attitudes toward statistics.

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Aim Clinical learning is a critical component of a nursing curriculum. Student satisfaction in clinical environment is crucial to foster a positive learning experience. Faculty shortages have made clinical teaching more challenging; as such, alternate models of clinical teaching must be explored by nursing programs. The purpose of this study was to measure the perception of student satisfaction in regard to the effectiveness of shared clinical teaching in nursing. Methods Utilizing Chan's Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI), this quantitative comparative study examined nursing students' preferred and actual clinical learning environment. The CLEI contains 42 questions in six subscales: Individualization, Innovation, Involvement, Personalization, Task Orientation, and Satisfaction in both the actual and preferred clinical learning environment. The sample consisted of 202 nursing students in two groups: the first group had 91 students who experienced shared clinical teaching with two faculty, whereas the second group had 111 students who experienced the traditional, single faculty model. The results were analyzed using independent sample T-tests. Results The preferred learning environment was rated highest in all six subscales. Scores of the Satisfaction subscale and the Innovation subscale for Actual Learning Environment, and the score of the Innovation subscale for Preferred Learning Environment of students experiencing shared clinical teaching with two faculty were higher than the scores of students experiencing traditional, single faculty model, with statistically significance ( P ＜0.05). Conclusion The results indicated students preferred the shared clinical teaching model with two faculty over the single faculty model. Nursing programs can utilize this model and apply these results to develop and maintain quality clinical teaching.

Leadership skills are essential among nurses to address the challenges faced by the nursing profession. This quantitative comparative study examined five components of transformational leadership skills as outlined by Kouzes and Posner among graduating baccalaureate nursing students and practicing nurses [1]. Five leadership components were used to examine if differences existed among the groups studied. The results indicated significant differences for modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. The study revealed that nursing students graduating from generic and accelerated programs have inferior leadership skills compared to nurses in clinical practice. The results may be useful in leadership training of nursing students through collaborative practices between practice settings and nursing schools to improve patient safety.