Students’ Home Visit Experiences within the Scope of Public Health Nursing Course: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of nursing students' home visits within the context of the public health nursing course.Patients and Methods: This was a qualitative descriptive study based on the student's reflective essay. The study was completed with 110 senior students in the nursing faculty of a public university in Turkey. Students explained self-perceptions (abilities, skills and feelings) before and after the home visits process of public health nursing field practice at the end of the semester.Results: The experiences of students before the field practice were grouped under the themes of "security", "concerns about the family process" and "feeling insufficient". The themes "job satisfaction", "being useful to the families", and "contribution to personal development" emerged from the data collected after the field practice was completed.Conclusions: This brief educational intervention allows students to feel useful to the families and the practice contributed to their personal development. It can improve the readiness of students for home visits with undergraduate programs because nursing students meet the "real world".