Nursing students' expectations, satisfaction, and perceptions regarding clinical learning environment: A cross-sectional, profile study from Turkey

Aim: The study aimed to examine the nursing students' expectation, satisfaction and perception regarding the clinical learning environment. Background: The clinical learning environment is the place where the students socialize professionally and gain professional competence. Design: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Participants: A total of 1484 nursing students enrolled in undergraduate programs for the 2019-2020 academic year. Methods: A self-designed questionnaire and The Clinical Learning Environment Scale was used to collect the data. Data were collected between May and July 2019. This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology checklist. Results: Nursing students primarily expected supportive attitudes and active participation in nursing practices. A total of 53.8% of the students were satisfied with the clinical learning environment. The two components they were most satisfied with were technical skills and interpersonal caring experiences. The mean scale score for the clinical learning environment perceived by the students was 70.12 (SD = 9.25) (min: 22, max: 110). The students' professional perspective, ability to transfer theory to practice and satisfaction with clinical practice affected their perception of the clinical learning environment. Conclusions: This research revealed that nursing students expect support and supervision from both the instructor and the clinical staff. The importance of educational and clinical support, which are the most basic needs of students during the learning process, is also clearly seen in the research results. Considering the unbalanced distribution in the instructor-to-student ratio, the importance of clinical mentoring becomes more evident.