The effect of a clinical practicum on undergraduate nursing students' self-efficacy for community-based family nursing practice

Providing family nursing care using a collaborative practice model presents a challenge to undergraduate students and to faculty who structure their learning experiences. A pre-test-post-test design was used to assess the impact of a 13-week family nursing clinical practicum on the perceived self-efficacy of two groups of nursing students in three areas: knowledge related to family nursing, home visiting, and collaborative practice. Students completed the Family Nursing Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (FNSE) at the beginning of the academic year and 4 and 8 months later to coincide with the timing of the practicum for each group (fall or winter term). A two-factor repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant group X time effect (lambda=.80, p<.001). Students' self-efficacy differed significantly by group at time 2 only (t=4.3, p<.001), supporting the positive effects of the clinical practicum on students' self-efficacy. Consistent with Bandura's (1977, 1986) theory, students rated actual performance of family nursing skills in a clinical setting as the most important source of efficacy information. Implications for designing meaningful clinical experiences in family nursing are discussed.