The Challenges of Effective Participation of Clinical Nurses in the Acquisition Process of Clinical Competence in Nursing Students: a Qualitative Study

The cooperation of nurses helps students to turn their theoretical knowledge into psychomotor skills. The aim of this study was to address The challenges of effective participation of clinical nurses in the acquisition process of clinical competence in nursing students. The present study was qualitative research performed in 2020. The main participants were nursing students and nurses working in the hospital. The participants of this study were selected purposefully. The obtained data were then analyzed using MAXQDA-10 software.  Semi-structured interviews and observations were used for data collection. Qualitative content analysis method was used.

Data analysis resulted in the emergence of two main categories as follows: "unpreparedness to play the role of educating students" and "non-educational clinical field". Moreover, unpreparedness to play the role of educating students includes the subcategories: "Nurses' scientific incompetence", "Fear of delegating authority to the students", and " limited nurse-student interaction"; and non-educational clinical field included the following subcategories: "implementation of non-standard care processes by nurses", "Lack of a written program for nurses' participation in student’s education", and " Insufficient opportunity to educate students due to the high workloads of nurses". The findings of this study showed that since nurses are considered an important part of clinical education for students, it seems that solving the existing challenges through involving nurses in the clinical education of students can be helpful.