The nurse teacher's role in clinical practice. Norwegian nursing students' experiences. A cross-sectional survey

The role of the nurse teacher in clinical parts of nurse education is subject for an ongoing debate and is described as unclear and ill-defined. The purpose of this study was to measure and discuss the role of the nurse teacher as reported by a sample of Norwegian nursing students. The Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher (CLES+T) evaluation scale was distributed to nursing students in five university colleges. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software package, release 15.0. Descriptive procedures were used for demographic data (frequency, cross tabulations, mean, standard deviation, per cent and range). Differences in scores between study years were compared using the Kruskal- Wallis test. Significance level for statistical tests comparing scores between study years was set to 0.05. The participants in this study reported that the importance of the role of the nurse teacher declined throughout the curriculum. The role of the nurse teacher is important for NSs undergoing clinical practice and especially for novice students. The role of the nurse teacher role is vital regarding reduction of the theory - practice gap, being like a member of the nursing team and to give pedagogical expertise to the nursing team.