Nursing students' perception of their clinical practice in intensive care units: A study from Egypt

Abstract

Providing nursing students with quality clinical experience in intensive care units (ICUs) is a major concern for nursing educators in Egypt. Understanding nursing students' perception of their critical care experience is important in future planning of successful clinical placements in ICUs. The purpose of this study was to investigate undergraduate nursing students' perception of their clinical practice in ICUs. The study involved 306 nursing students who were registered in critical care nursing course. Data were collected using a self-administered survey which addressed nursing students' perception of three domains including clinical practice environment, clinical teaching and learning and factors hindering clinical practice in intensive care setting. The results illustrated that the majority of students enjoyed their clinical experience in ICUs. However, students highlighted many factors that hindered their clinical practice such as the stressful intensive care setting, fear of making mistakes, complex patients’ conditions, theory-practice gap, overburdening with documentation and lack of coordination between clinical placements. Supportive learning environment is needed to enhance students' clinical learning, improve collaboration between students, demonstrators and critical care nursing staff, and reduce theory-practice gap.

Being a Student Nurse in Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Study

“…On the first day of the clinical practice, the students considered the neurosurgical ICU as a distressing unit with different sounds and devices where unconscious patients in need of care are treated. Similarly, previous studies showed that student nurses focused primarily on the general condition of patients in an ICU (4,9) and nurses' effort to communicate with patients (4) . They found the ICU environment stressful, and the devices and equipment used in treatment and care increased the stress level (4,9,12) .…”

“…Similarly, previous studies showed that student nurses focused primarily on the general condition of patients in an ICU (4,9) and nurses' effort to communicate with patients (4) . They found the ICU environment stressful, and the devices and equipment used in treatment and care increased the stress level (4,9,12) . Also, Taştan et al (11) found that students defined ICU as depressing environments with constant monitor sounds and alarms and they mentioned the feelings of fear and panic created by the environment saying, "I was terrified by the sounds of mechanical ventilators, to which patients were connected for breathing, and I panicked when the alarm sounded".…”

“…Nursing students acquire professional qualifications through education offered in school and clinical settings (5)(6)(7)(8) . Internalization of the powers, roles and responsibilities of nursing by students through receiving a qualified education (2,6,9) is significant for professionalization in nursing (1,6,7) . Clinical training is an essential part of professional nursing education since it ensures the transformation of the knowledge gained through theoretical education into skills, equips students with empathic approach and critical decision-making and effective communication skills, and allows for observing and applying nursing care interventions (3,4,7,(10)(11)(12)(13) .…”

“…One of the crucial clinical training settings that help students prepare for the profession is intensive care units (ICU) (2,9,(11)(12)(13)(14) . In these units, students get the opportunity to identify, implement and assess nursing care needs of critical patients, and to observe team collaboration and communication (2,4,(10)(11)(12)(13)(14) .…”

“…On the other hand, the majority of studies investigating students' experiences in critical care settings focus on general ICU experience (2,4,7,(9)(10)(11)(12) and do not provide information about experience in specialized units such as the neurosurgical ICU. Although few in number, the existing studies suggest that the support given to students by neurosurgical nurses (8) and teaching offered by nurses for the care of neurosurgical patients in the presence of real life conditions (3) positively affect the clinical experience (8) and increase students' knowledge, skills and self-esteem (3) .…”