NURSING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT: A COMPARISON BETWEEN EXPECTED AND ACTUAL ENVIRONMENT

Clinical learning environment has an important role in clinical learning of
nursing students. Differences between expected and actual clinical learning environment of nursing
student reduces their interest in clinical environment and clinical performance. Therefore, the aim of
present study was to compare the perception of nursing students of expected and actual clinical
learning environment in medical-surgical wards.
Materials & Methods: This descriptive-longitudinal study was conducted 75 baccalaureate nursing
students from Urmia nursing & midwifery faculty. In the beginning of the semester, the expected
perception of their clinical environment was determined and in the end of semester the actual
perception of students of their clinical environment was determined again. For data analysis, clinical
learning environment inventory was used that contain 49 item in six areas. Data analysis was
conducted by SPSS software using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: The findings showed that the average score of nursing students’ perception of expected
clinical learning environment was 154.89 ± 14.05 and the average score of nursing students’
perception of actual clinical learning environment was 108.41 ± 12.78. The dependent sample t-test
showed that there were statistical differences between actual and expected perception on nursing
students regarding clinical learning environment.
Conclusion: The gap between nursing students’ perception of expected and actual clinical learning
environment may have negative effects on their clinical learning. This indicates that nursing education
managers should further attend to clinical learning environment of nursing students