A STUDY TO ASSESS THE PERCEPTION ON EFFECTIVENESS OF CLINICAL EXPERIENCE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS IN SELECTED NURSING COLLEGES OF TRIVANDRUM DISTRICT

Abstract

The practical component of nursing education has always been essential. It educates nursing students to be capable of both "knowing" and "doing" the clinical principles in practise. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the factors influencing clinical experience, to assess the perception on effectiveness of clinical experience among nursing students, to determine the association among perception of nursing students with carefully chosen demographic variables. Method: A quantitative research approach with non-experimental survey design was selected for the study and convenient sampling technique was used for selecting 100 4th year BSc Nursing students. The effectiveness of the clinical experience was evaluated among nursing students using a structured questionnaire and an updated DREEM (Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure) tool. Result: The result revealed that among the 100 samples, (83%) of student’s perception on effectiveness of clinical experience was highly effective, (13%) feels the perception on clinical experience was effective and only (4%) of samples feels the perception on effectiveness of clinical experience was ineffective. The result regarding factors influencing clinical experience include the type of clinical session (group session (91%)), (79%) of the samples clinical experience was student friendly, (95%) clinical area helped to meet the clinical need, (95%) clinical area was supportive, (81%) has got adequate opportunity to perform tasks, (76%) of students clinical learning environment provided resources that stimulated self-initiated learning, (73%)are anxious in the clinical area, (89%) of samples learning has taken place since placement in the clinical area, (79%) learn best when observe, (98%) learn best when do the return demonstration, (88%) of samples clinical impact has a positive impact on professional growth, (65%) has positive interpersonal relationship with staff on clinical unit, (69%) of samples relationship with clinical staff influenced learning experience, (66%) has enough opportunities to participate in ward/mentor influenced the learning, (85%) of samples interpersonal relationship with preceptors/mentor influenced the learning, (96%) of samples preceptors/mentor played significant role in learning, (96%)of samples teaching method used were helpful, (95%) learn best hen listen to lectures, (96%) of samples opinion about clinical area has change positively since placement, and (98%) of samples integration of theory into practise has taken place. The results of the Chi Square test indicate that there is no significant correlation between perceptions of nursing students and certain demographic factors like age, sex, place of residence, and the main reason for choosing to pursue a career in nursing. However, there is a significant correlation between perceptions of nursing students and demographic factors like marital status and religion. Therefore, the perception effectiveness of nursing student is successfully tested and found to be statistically significant at p < 0.05 level.