Clinical experiences of undergraduate nursing students at a public hospital: Kavango East Region, Namibia

Abstract

Nursing students’ education is significantly impacted by the clinical learning environment, where hands-on experimental practice in healthcare settings is provided. Public hospitals, often considered by many patients as priority, these present unique challenges and opportunities for nursing students to learn. For nursing students to build clinical proficiency, active involvement from health professionals like clinical instructors, enrolled and registered nurses is crucial, these professionals perform an important role in promoting a helpful clinical education environment, to ensure that undergraduates gain the practical skills and knowledge necessary for competence. Examining the clinical experience of nursing students’ was the aim of this study, furthermore, to identify factors that influence learning during clinical placement at the Rundu Intermediate Hospital, a public training hospital in the Kavango East Region. An exploratory, contextual and informative design was employed: the research participants consisted of nursing students from the University of Namibia, Alba Chipamba, and Welwitchia University. The study employed a purposive sample technique to select the study participants. Satisfied scrutiny was used to examine the collected data. Six main themes emerged: Attitude issues in the support system, staffing challenges, teaching and learning challenges, patient-student relationships, learning from diverse ward experience and improvement to regain clinical learning. The shortage of clinical instructors present significant obstacles to learning and requires improvements to enhance clinical education. This study’s findings shows that a clearly structured plans and actions from hospitals and nursing training institutions’ managements is important to address the challenges students face during their clinical placement. It is therefore suggested that universities recruit more clinical instructors to assist ward nurses with their duties, and hospital management should ensure adequate resources and provide in-service training for nurses, to strengthen healthcare professionals’, having clarity of their duties and obligations and update their knowledge, ultimately improving their clinical knowledge and skills to date.