Providing clinical safety and security for nursing students: Spontaneous learning

Abstract

Background: Clinical education environment safety and security plays an important role in the learning of nursing students. Various studies and authors’ experiences show that there is a lack of learning in nursing students in the arena. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of providing clinical safety and security on nursing students’ learning. Method: The research sample in this qualitative research consisted of 12 internship nursing students, 3 instructors and 4 nurses in one of the hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Educational intervention was conducted to empower the instructors in the areas of communication, educational strategies and physical environment reform by holding 3 workshops. After a semester, data was collected on nursing students’ learning by semi-structured interview and field note. The content analysis method with a conventional approach was used to data analysis. Results: The results revealed one main theme consisting of “spontaneous learning” and three sub themes including “learning nursing care”, “the motivation for learning nursing care”, and “effective interaction”. Conclusion: The main reason for spontaneous learning has been to improve psychological climate of the clinical environment (wards) by instructors. Acceptance of the student in the ward as a member of the care team and providing effective feedback were the most important factor in improving the psychological climate of the ward. This led to a motivation for care and spontaneous learning in students.