An iterative approach to enhance the clinical learning experience in Macao.

Abstract

Clinical placement learning for student nurses in all parts of the world, can be a stressful experience and students often need additional support in order to cope. The aim of this study was to reduce or eliminate the stressors to enhance nursing students’ clinical learning experience through implementation of an iterative approach that developed a personalised response to student stress. A prospective cohort research design was applied to collect data from a sample of undergraduate nursing students across the four study years. An iterative approach was employed to improve students’ learning experience and the Stressors in Nursing Students Scale-Chinese Version (SINS-CN) was used to measure student stress. Key problems encountered by students were identified, refined and the responding solutions were worked out and implemented among this group of students through their year one to year four. The overall SINS-CN mean score for each cohort students was declined to a moderate level. In conclusion, having implemented iterative approach to address factors that led to stressful environments encountered by the nursing students, the overall stress score and each sub-dimension score, decreased significantly. Therefore, it is recommended that this approach could be adopted by other colleagues in the nursing arena around the world.