Record-Keeping: A Qualitative Exploration of Challenges Experienced by Undergraduate Nursing Students in Selected Clinical Settings

Abstract

Good nursing practice requires detailed record-keeping, which should be timely, comprehensive and accurate. Undergraduate nursing students experience challenges with record-keeping. As a result, a phenomenal qualitative study aimed at exploring and describing the record-keeping challenges experienced by undergraduate nursing students was carried out in one of the northern-eastern regions, Namibia. The data were collected through three focus-group discussions with 23 second-year degree nursing students. It became evident that nursing students experienced challenges with record-keeping in clinical practice, as evidenced by the three themes: theory-practice gap, health system-related challenges and hospital staff-related challenges. This study has implications for nurse educators in terms of promoting uniformity and good record-keeping practices in clinical settings.