Attitude of Nursing and Midwifery students towards clinical practice and its associated factors in Northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Developing an instrument to measure nursing students' attitudes towards nurses during clinical practice: A quantitative study

AIM

This study was conducted to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to determine nursing students' attitudes towards nurses during the clinical practice.

BACKGROUND

Nurses affect the clinical practice process of nursing students and play an important role in the latter gaining experience. Evaluation of students' attitudes towards nurses is a critical factor for the training of qualified nurses.

DESIGN

This study used a quantitative cross-sectional design.

METHODS

This study was conducted between February and March 2024 with 408 students studying in the nursing department of a university in Türkiye. The item pool of the scale was formed with 45 items through literature review and qualitative data analysis and presented to 21 experts. After the content validity, the draft scale consisting of 38 items was used as a data collection tool. Lawshe's Content Validity Ratio, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin Coefficient, Bartlett's test, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Principal Component Analysis, Varimax Factor Rotation Method, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Cronbach's Alpha Internal Consistency Coefficient, Spearman Correlation Coefficient and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Exploratory factor analysis revealed 28 items and three sub-dimensions in the scale. Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient was 0.902 for the cooperation and understanding sub-dimension, 0.925 for the communication skills and guidance sub-dimension, 0.723 for the support for professional development sub-dimension and 0.946 for the total scale. According to the confirmatory factor analysis fit index results of the scale, RMSEA value was 0.054 and χ2/df value was 2.189. As a result of the analysis conducted to determine the test-retest reliability, it was determined that all items and factor scores showed significant relationships between the two applications (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The scale was found to be a valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to determine nursing students' attitudes towards nurses during the clinical practice.

Skill development practice-related challenges, and associated factors among nursing students

BACKGROUND

Nurse students reportedly face lots of challenges during skill development practice in health institutions. However, the prevalence of challenges and factors associated aren't well understood yet.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the study was to identify the challenges experienced by nursing students in health institutions during skill development practice.

METHOD

A cross-sectional study was employed on the participants selected using a simple random sampling technique. The data was cleaned using Epi-data and exported to SPSS for analysis. Logistic regression analysis and correlation analysis were carried out to identify the associated factors.

RESULT

The participants are more challenged by instructor factors (43.6%) and facility factors (40%). The prevalence of the challenge was 16.9%. Substance use and learning institutions are found to be independent predictors. A negative correlation was identified between the total challenge score and the overall competency score.

CONCLUSION

The determined nursing students' challenges are strong enough to affect the quality of education; therefore, it is essential to plan and improve the students' integrated supportive supervision.

Do nursing students' attitudes to clinical practice training affect the levels of vocational motivation?

BACKGROUND

It is extremely important for nursing students to be professionally motivated to train qualified future professional nurses. Students' vocational motivation is affected by their experiences in clinical and academic learning environments.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between the vocational motivation levels of nursing students and their attitudes toward clinical practice.

METHODS

292 nursing students participated in the cross-sectional, descriptive study. The Student Information Form, Nursing Students' Attitudes Towards Clinical Practices Scale, Motivation Sources and Problems Scale (MSPS) were used to gather the data.

RESULTS

The average score for students' attitudes toward clinical practice was 107.08±18.13, while the total score for MSPS stood at 3.80±0.63. A positive correlation was identified between the attitude toward clinical practice and vocational motivation levels (r = 0.367; p < 0.001). There were positive correlations between the intrinsic motivation (r = 0.572; p < 0.001) and extrinsic motivation (r = 0.58; p < 0.001), and negative correlations were observed between the negative motivation (r = -0.324; p < 0.001) and the attitude toward clinical practice scale. There were positive correlations between belief and expectation (r = 0.492; p < 0.001) and positive approach (r = 0.532; p < 0.001) with the MSPS. In the multiple regression analysis, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, satisfaction with studying nursing, and participation in vocational courses were determined as effective predictors of attitudes towards clinical practice and explained 60.4% of the variance.

CONCLUSIONS

The study concluded that nursing students' attitudes toward clinical practices affect vocational motivation. Clinical learning environments should be arranged in a way to increase the motivation level of students towards professional learning.

Clinical competency and associated factors among undergraduate nursing students studying in universities of Southern regional state of Ethiopia, 2021

Background

Clinical practice is the means by which nursing students learn to apply the theory, facilitating integration of theoretical knowledge and practical skill in the clinical setting which becomes arts and science of profession. This correlation of theory and practice, and the building of meaningful experience, take place during clinical practice in the health care service. Even though, nursing students need to have clinical competency during practical setting, there were little available evidences regarding to their competency status in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess magnitude of clinical competency and its predictors among undergraduate nursing students studying in universities of Southern regional state of Ethiopia in 2021 G C.

Methods

Multi-centered institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among 414 undergraduate nursing students studying in eight universities of Southern regional state of Ethiopia in 2021 academic year. Systematic random sampling technique after proportional allocation to each selected university was used to select the study participants. Data were collected using pretested structured questionnaire by face to face interview after written informed consent was obtained from each participant. Data were cleaned, coded and entered into Epidata version 3.01 and analyzed using statistical package for social science (SPSS) software version 26. Descriptive statistic for all variables and bi-variable and multi-variables logistic regression analysis to identify factors associated with clinical competency was computed and expressed in odds ratio. The result was presented in the form of text, tables and figures and those variables with P-value of <0.05 in multivariable analysis were declared as statistically significant.

Result

From 423 total calculated sample sizes, 414 of them were participated in this study giving a response rate of 97.8%. From those participants, 248 (59.9%) of them has clinical competency [95% CI: (55.18%, 64.62%)]. In multivariable analysis, studying in post basic program [AOR: 5.58], conducive clinical learning environment [AOR: 4.10], good staff-student interaction [AOR: 7.44], satisfaction [AOR: 20.66] and positive attitude towards clinical practice [AOR: 2.49] were factors significantly associated with clinical competency.

Conclusion

In this study, the overall magnitude of clinical competency was found to be unsatisfactory (59.9%). Studying in private program, non-conducive clinical learning environment, poor staff-student interaction, low satisfaction and negative attitude towards clinical practice were identified as factors associated with clinical incompetency. Policy makers, universities and teaching health facilities need to work collaboratively to create nurses with clinical competency by focusing on proper screening to select candidates for studying in private program, creating conducive clinical learning environment, integrating students with clinical staffs to facilitate learning and positive attitude change of students towards their profession to increase level of satisfaction.

Practice of code of ethics and associated factors among health professionals in Central Gondar Zone public hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia, 2021: a mixed-method study design

BACKGROUND

Ethics is the science of moral and ethical rules recognised in human life and attempts to verify what is morally right and wrong. Healthcare ethics is seen as an integrated part of the daily activities of health facilities. Healthcare professionals' standardisation and uniformity in healthcare ethics are urgent and basic requirements. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the practice of the code of ethics and associated factors among health professionals in Central Gondar Zone public hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia, 2021.

METHODS

A facility-based cross-sectional study design with a mixed method was conducted on 631 health professionals from Central Gondar Zone public hospitals. For the quantitative part, pre-tested self-administered questionnaires were used, and for the qualitative part, key informant interviews with a semi-structured questionnaire were used. Variables with a p value of < 0.2 in binary logistic regression entered into a multivariable logistic regression, then p value < 0.05 and AOR were used to declare statistically significant variables in quantitative data. A thematic content analysis was used for qualitative data analysis.

RESULTS

This study revealed that only 286 (46.7%) health professionals had good practice of the code of ethics. Good ethical knowledge (AOR = 1.95, 95% CI 1.37, 2.77), favourable attitude (AOR = 1.55, 95% CI 1.11, 2.16), and satisfaction of health professionals with their jobs (AOR = 1.45, 95% CI (1.04, 2.04) were significantly associated with the practice of health care ethics.

CONCLUSIONS

Health professionals' overall level of practice of health care ethics in the Central Gondar Zone public hospitals was poor. This necessitates practical training, ongoing follow-up, availing of necessary medical equipment, a smooth working environment, and modification of the recognition system for health professionals.