Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare (Sep 2020)
Challenges of Clinical Nursing Training Through Internship Approach: A Qualitative Study
Abstract
Sharare Ahmadi,1 Alireza Abdi,2 Mohammad Nazarianpirdosti,1 Fatemeh Rajati,3 Mahmoud Rahmati,2,3 Arsalan Abdi1 1Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran; 2Nursing and Midwifery School, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran; 3Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health, Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, IranCorrespondence: Alireza AbdiNursing and Midwifery School, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, IranEmail [email protected]: Nursing education programs are designed to decrease the gap between theory and practice. It is believed that internship programs can decrease this gap. An internship program has newly been implemented in Kermanshah Nursing School. However, the efficiency of this program has not been assessed. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the challenges related to the internship education of nursing students.Methods: The study was conducted as qualitative research. The participants were eight nursing students who had at least one semester of experience in internship. They were selected through purposive sampling. Data gathering was done through semi-structured interviews, which were recorded and analyzed through a three-stage content analysis approach. For data management, MAXQDA-10 was used.Results: Out of the eight participants, three were male, and all were in the final year of their education. In total, 423 primary codes emerged after analyses, which were placed in seven categories, including: education before internship, lack of support, planning difficulties, interaction with staff, invisible evaluation, welfare defects, and professional identity.Conclusion: The study revealed the challenges of the internship program for nursing students in Iran. Some of the problems were related to educational background, others were associated with the shortcomings of the cultural aspects of the context. Therefore, it is recommended to optimize the clinical training of nursing students in the internship program by addressing these challenges.Keywords: nursing, clinical education, clinical competency, internship
