Abstract:
Clinical placement provides an opportunity for students to be socialised into the health system, achieve clinical skills in a real-life setting and observe the delivery of care by other healthcare professionals. Despite the obvious benefits of placements for students, poor relationships with the supervising nurse, environments that fail to promote belongingness and a lack of supervision hinder learning in the clinical setting. The purpose of the study was to assess the clinical learning experiences of nursing degree students practising in general wards at public training hospitals in the Khomas region of Namibia. The objective of the study was to explore and describe the clinical learning experiences of nursing degree students in general wards at public training hospitals in the Khomas region. The study aimed at answering the following central question: “What are your experiences during placement in general wards of the training hospitals in the Khomas region? The researcher selected a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual design. Fifty-one participants from the undergraduate second, third and fourth years were recruited. Data collection included eleven (11) individual face-to face interviews and eight (8) Focus Group Discussions. Data was coded and analysed using Tesch’s method of data analysis. Four themes emerged from the exploration and description of nursing students ‘clinical learning experiences, namely, a non-conducive learning environment, negative staff attitude, communication barriers and shortage of staff. The results show that there were indeed constraints to learning in the clinical setting across all the years of study. Recommendations were made to the Nursing Education Institution, the training hospitals and the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Further research is needed on the clinical learning experiences of nursing students in other regions, the clinical learning experiences of male nurses and the lecturers’ experiences on clinical accompaniments.
