A Descriptive Study to Assess the Perception of Clinical Learning Enviroment among the students in selected Nursing Colleges of Metroplitan City

The clinical learning environment (CLE) is an interactive network of forces within the clinical setting, i.e., staff, the patient, the preceptor, and the nurse educator, that influence the clinical learning outcomes and have impact on student behaviours. Hence, clinical experiences are important for student learning and professional development. Nursing as a profession has evolved in response to society’s needs for well-prepared, caring practitioners during clients’ episodes of illness and promote health among all age groups. Clinical education is an essential part of nursing education. It provides students with the opportunity to put the knowledge, skills and concepts they acquire from classes into practice Experience gained in clinical learning environments makes a major contribution to students’ professional development by enabling them to think in new ways. The aim of the study is to assess the perception of clinical learning environment among the students in selected nursing colleges.

Quantitative, descriptive cross-sectional design was used to evaluate the nursing students’ perceptions at college of nursing, sir J J Hospital, Mumbai by using structured questionnaires. Probability simple random lottery method used to select 200 nursing students. Descriptive analysis done with frequency and percentages and fisher exact test used to find out association between between the perception of clinical learning environment among the students with their selected demographic variables.

In this study, 88(44%) nursing students were in 21-22 year of age group and majority 106(53%) of the participants were female. 31%Nursing student were studying in third year while 69(34.5%) had clinical experiences 536 to 1702 hours. Perception of clinical environment among nursing students was good 109(54.5%) where 86(43%) having excellent.

The study showed association between selected demographic year of nursing degree, type of supervision with the perception of clinical learning environment among the students. The nursing students were oriented to unit settings/ wards by clinical instructor/teacher, they felt that they receive individualized supervision and continuous feedback, round clock supervision frequent visit and suggestions of improvement from clinical instructors.