Learning in nursing home placement: A phenomenological study of student nurses’ lived experience

Abstract

Aim To explore first‐year student nurses’ lived experience of learning in clinical placement in nursing homes. Background Nursing homes traditionally represent students’ first clinical placement sites during nurse education, and nursing home residents’ care needs can provide opportunities for student nurses to acquire both fundamental and specialised nursing skills. In clinical placements, students have opportunities to apply and integrate theoretical knowledge, practical skills and ethical competence in a clinical setting. Design A qualitative design with a hermeneutic phenomenological approach was employed and reported in accordance with the COREQ guidelines. Methods The study was undertaken at three nursing homes affiliated with one Norwegian university. Close observation (173 h) and in‐depth individual interviews (n = 7) with first‐year student nurses were conducted to explore their lived experience of learning. Data analysis was guided by van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Results The essential meaning of the phenomenon of learning in clinical placements in a nursing home setting is characterised by four themes: (1) navigating a new and complex learning context, (2) being emotionally affected when facing sickness and frailty, (3) having a vital need for support and guidance and (4) being engaged in learning. Conclusions The findings are discussed against the backdrop of educational learning theory. Learning in clinical placements in nursing homes is a multi‐faceted and complex phenomenon related to the students’ lived experience on the contextual, relational and individual levels. Overall, our findings demonstrate that learning in clinical placements is part of the process of professional identity development. Relevance to clinical practice The clinical practice arena should emphasise emotional support for student nurses, enhance their self‐directed reflection and explicitly focus on the essence of nursing in nursing homes.

Co‐creating digital educational resources to enhance quality in student nurses' clinical education in nursing homes: Report of a co‐creative process

“…Interviews with student nurses, nurse educators and registered nurse mentors, as well as observations of mentorship practices (e.g., supervision and assessment), were conducted between June 2018 and March 2019 to gain insights, empathize and learn about the challenges faced by stakeholders during clinical placements. Findings from these studies have been reported elsewhere (see Aase et al, 2022; Dalsmo et al, 2022; Frøiland et al, 2021; Laugaland, Billett, et al, 2021; Laugaland, Kaldestad, et al, 2021). Inspired by Malterud (2012) first step (total impression) in systematic text condensation, we synthesized the findings from these studies from a “birds' eye” perspective before publishing them, as described in the overall study protocol (Laugaland et al, 2020).…”

“…Interviews with pilot group participants Focus group interviews with registered nurse mentors (n = 30) and nurse educators (n = 9). ies have been reported elsewhere (see Aase et al, 2022;Dalsmo et al, 2022;Frøiland et al, 2021;Laugaland, Billett, et al, 2021;Laugaland, Kaldestad, et al, 2021). Inspired by Malterud (2012) first step (total impression) in systematic text condensation, we synthesized the findings from these studies from a "birds' eye" perspective before publishing them, as described in the overall study protocol (Laugaland et al, 2020).…”

Usefulness of pedagogical design features of a digital educational resource into nursing home placement: a qualitative study of nurse educators’ experiences

“…This pedagogical approach prioritises a student-centred learning model, enabling student nurses to construct their understanding actively rather than passively receiving the presented information [ 49 , 50 ]. This finding is important because nurse educators often fail to involve students in reflective-thinking activities during their educational process, resulting in a lack of student participation and difficulties in comprehending learning objectives [ 6 , 48 , 52 – 55 ]. Regarding this issue, Dalsmo et al [ 52 ] revealed that nurse educators were often ‘invisible’ in students’ learning processes during nursing home placement, hindering students’ ability to participate fully and comprehend the learning objectives.…”

“…Nurse educators positively experienced that pedagogical design features of the digiQUALinPRAX resource encouraged registered nurse mentors to provide a written assessment concerning both the strengths and weaknesses of student progression prior to summative assessment meetings, resulting in registered nurse mentors becoming more verbal during the meetings. Several studies have reported that nurse educators experience challenges in assessment meetings because of registered nurse mentors’ silence [ 42 , 52 , 56 ]. When nurse educators in our study experienced that registered nurse mentors wrote and verbalised what was expected from the students to work on during the remaining placement study, they were given opportunities to gear their student supervision towards the learning needs to focus on.…”

Nurse preceptors' experiences of promoting and teaching fundamental care to undergraduate nursing students: A qualitative study

“…Accordingly, there is a need for skilled and competent nurses in primary healthcare settings (Miura et al, 2020). Therefore, to educate competent nurses who can meet the needs of patients with complex health situations, a greater need for highly qualified nurse preceptors and high standard of preceptorship (Aglen et al, 2018), as well as for a learning environment that facilitates students' learning and their professional identity development (Dalsmo et al, 2022), are required.…”