Korean nursing students’ experiences of their first clinical practice

Abstract

Background: Clinical practice in nursing education develops the students' core competence in nursing. Nursing students' experiences of their clinical practice provide deeper insight to develop an effective clinical teaching strategy in nursing education. The purpose of this study was to explore the meanings and structure related to nursing students' experiences of their clinical practice. Methods:A qualitative approach based on van Manen's phenomenological method was used. Participants were 12 female students and three male students, ages 21 to 25 in a nursing college. Data were collected from iterative work with in-depth interviews and their field notes during the first clinical practice of eight-weeks. Each interview was tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Findings:Essential themes that fit into the context of the four existential ground of body, time, space and other people emerged: body locking up, hands trembling; an obstruction-like being; feeling the patient's pain; my proud self as a future nurse; the first encounter with a serious and awkward time; increasing one's own time for self-reflection; long days but a quickly-passing week; any places with uncomfortableness; steadily growing radius of activities; nurses who and who are not worthy of emulation; but still-grateful patients; and my most reliable practice colleague. Conclusions:The result showed that nursing students did not adapt efficiently to clinical practice and they experienced difficult learning processes. It is necessary for nursing faculty to develop effective and realistic orientation programs, support systems, and intervention programs to strengthen nursing students' competency. The lived experiences of clinical learning among nursing students provided useful insight for nursing faculty involved in nursing education.

Nursing students’ learning dynamics and influencing factors in clinical contexts

“…Indeed, as a vital sociocultural factor, the participants in this research also stressed the existence of social hierarchy in both social and learning contexts, especially in clinical environments, and they disclosed that this hierarchy negatively influenced their learning. These findings are also supported by Yang (2012). Meanwhile, this hierarchical relationship between nurses and nursing students can also be found in research conducted in Western countries.…”

“…This international concern in nursing studies is similar to the situation in Korea. Many studies conducted in Korea discuss that nurses have neither the capability nor the time to support the students' learning (Yang, 2012). Due to the difficulties nurses experienced in supporting the nursing students' clinical education, the students accordingly experienced difficulty in building close interpersonal relationships with the nurses, hence reducing positive learning outcomes.…”

Thai nursing students' experiences when attending real life situations involving cardiac life support: A Phenomenological study

“…Several reasons were given that showed their worries, fears, and emotional stress. These findings are similar to those of one study which reported that nursing students experienced simultaneous feelings, including excitement, fear, a sense of embarrassment, and uncertainty during their first clinical practice (Yang, 2013). Similarly, in another study, nursing students reported about lacking confidence and feeling fear during their clinical practice (Oflaz et al, 2010).…”

“…These feelings were displayed in the following themes: "enhancing self value"; "knowing each moment is meaningful for one's life"; "having time to understand the reality of life"; and "feeling empathy." Positive learning experience in clinical practice can be a foundation for achieving successful practice; this encourages students to become great professional nurses (Yang, 2013). In clinical practice, positive learning experiences might be established by creating a good learning environment.…”

Lack of Preparation: Iranian Nurses' Experiences During Transition From College to Clinical Practice

“…However, on review, the majority of these studies have been quantitative in nature (Suzuki et al, 2006) and focus on the importance of the phenomenon of transition (Hogston, 1993) and its certain effects on nurses' performances (Priest, 1999;Seright, 2011). On the other hand, the qualitative studies done in this field are limited in number and scope (Dyess & Sherman, 2009;Silva et al, 2010;Yang, 2013). Furthermore, because adaptation to one's clinical role and the transition nursing students' experience are influenced by such factors as workplace atmosphere (Seright, 2011;Strubert & Carpenter, 2007) and teaching methods (Orland-Barak & Wilhelem, 2005), an investigation of the abovementioned phenomenon in various environments through further studies will facilitate identification of the contributory factors.…”