Nursing is a practice based profession with clinical education as an essential part of the nursing curriculum. The study was carried out to assess the Perceptions of Actual and Preferred Hospital Clinical Learning Environment of Student Nurses. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out to determine student nurses view of their actual hospital clinical learning environment and identify factors that influence student nurses opinion of their hospital clinical learning environment.
Investigation revealed that despite the fact that clinical learning is an integral part of nursing education, yet it has been problematic. Various studies have suggested that not all practice settings are able to provide nursing students with a positive learning environment. The research design used in this report is descriptive design, utilizing questionnaire method to obtain information from the respondents for this project. Primary data were collected from the primary source which questionnaire was used as an instrument of data collection while secondary data were sources from textbooks, journals, newspapers and the internet were employed. The data were presented on a frequency distribution table and analyzed using simple percentage, while hypothesis was tested using chi-square test.
The importance of helping students feel valued and interpersonal relationships in the clinical area need to be highlighted in the preceptor preparation programmes. The findings of this study will reveal the students’ perceptions of actual and preferred clinical learning environment in the hospital setting, whether the practice settings are able to provide nursing students with a positive learning environment. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Nursing students should be allocated to preceptors with a patient/client caseload would be a means towards improving students’ perception of ward and workload organization.
