Nursing students' experiences and expectations of clinical learning: A qualitative study

Background: Clinical learning is an important component of nursing education that can support the development of competence. Nursing students have expectations before clinical learning, however if these expectations are not matched with their experiences, then development can be hampered. Objective: To explore nursing students' expectations and experiences of their clinical learning experiences. Design: Qualitative descriptive design. Settings: The study was conducted at a large teaching hospital in Namibia. Participants: Fifteen first to fourth year undergraduate nursing students who were allocated to a teaching hospital in Namibia. Methods: The participants were purposively sampled among the teaching hospital's undergraduate nursing students. Data were collected between June to November 2021 through in-depth, semi-structured interviews that lasted between 35 and 45 min each. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The data analysis identified four themes: clinical outlook and role, supporting/role modelling, clinical teaching and learning, and linking theory and practice. Conclusion: The expectations and experiences of nursing students regarding the clinical environment were mixed. The findings demonstrated the need to moderate students' expectations, as well as to reorganize the clinical learning environment to enhance students' learning. Further studies should look at the standardization of student expectations based on the context of their clinical learning environment, and how this can improve learning experiences.