A SURVEY INTO THE SATISFACTION OF NURSING STUDENTS WITH THEIR PRACTICAL TRAINING

The training nursing students in the Republic of Bulgaria confirms with the contemporary European requirements. The training is theoretical and practical, with the practical training accounting for at least 50% of the total number of hours in the specialty. The practical training includes clinical practice and pre-graduation traineeship, which complies with the Ordinance on the Unified state requirements regarding the training of nurses. The clinical practice and the pre-graduation traineeship involve a total duration of 2740 hours for students majoring in Nursing (Ordinance on the Unified state requirements). The level of satisfaction of these nursing students is an important indicator of the quality of the practical training. The study involved a sociological method of direct group survey involving an original set of questions with one developed specifically for this survey and others adapted from the questionnaire on job satisfaction of the Institute of Psychology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. This questionnaire on satisfaction comprises 36 statements with three subscales: 1) work organization or organization of the practical training; 2) social-psychological conditions; and 3) material. The approach uses a Likert-type scale from 1 to 4 (1 = "no", 2 = "to a certain extent", 3= "very much", and 4 = "extremely") to score responses. The opinion of 280 fourth-year nursing students from three universities: the Medical University of Plovdiv, Trakia University of Stara Zagora, and 'Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov' University of Burgas, is surveyed. The analysis of the results from the conducted empirical survey shows that in their professional activity the surveyed students are primarily motivated by love and care for people (78.8%) followed by the desire to perform an activity that is beneficial to society (63.3%). Then follows the respect on behalf of patients, the team, and society as a whole (52.5%) and subsequently, the emotional attractiveness of the work reflected in the desire to do work that brings pleasure and joy (job satisfaction; 42.4%). The level of student satisfaction with their practical training depends on the organizational-educational, social-psychological, and material and technical conditions of the hospital environment. The analysis of the survey data confirms the significant role of practical training for the professional qualification of these nursing students. However, certain negative trends are also identified. These trends are connected with the satisfaction of the students concerning the procedures they have the opportunity to perform, their relationships with their mentors and medical teams, and that at times they are required to perform inappropriate activities. This calls for increased control on behalf of the tutors.