Abstract:
The learning environment and supervision in clinical placement play an important
role in nursing education. The purpose of this study was to describe the opinions of
student nurses with regard to the clinical learning environment and supervision at
Malamulo Hospital, Malawi. A quantitative descriptive design was used. Data were
collected from nursing students at Malamulo College of Health Science using the
Clinical Learning Environment Scale (CLES) comprising structured questions. The
questionnaire was administered to the total population of students (N=84) and the
response rate was 87% (n=73). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data.
Relationships between variables were determined by using Fisher’s exact test and the
t-test.
The findings revealed that the majority of the participants were satisfied with their
clinical learning environment and supervision in their latest clinical placement.
Particularly, they were satisfied with the relationship that prevailed between students
and members of nursing staff, feedback they received from their supervisors, the
nursing care given to patients and the quality of learning opportunities. However, it
was determined that nurse teachers did not regularly supervise students and also that
some students were not clear about the nursing philosophy of their wards. Ward
familiarization processes were not well planned as indicated by about a third of the
participants. More than one third also indicated that the learning situations were not
sufficient and not meaningful. While 73.98 % indicated that they received
constructive feedback from their supervisors, about half of the participants indicated
that the feedback was not given continuously.The majority (67.76%) of the
participants experienced team supervision as opposed to individual supervision.
Therefore it is recommended that nurse teachers increase the number of visits to the
wards when students are in clinical placement to improve quality of clinical learning.
The nursing college may need to have specific clinical instructors who are trained in
clinical supervision and who will be available for students in the clinical placements
regularly. The ward managers and the nursing staff need to clarify and display their
ward nursing philosophy so that both nurses and students can have a common understanding and common goal in the provision of nursing care. It is also
recommended that feedback be given to students continuously to enhance learning.
