Amira Ali Alshowkan
University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Title: Nursing Student Experiences of Psychiatric Clinical Practice: A qualitative Study
Biography
Biography: Amira Ali Alshowkan
Abstract
Background: Clinical experience is identified as a vital part in nursing education. It allows students to merge the knowledge with practice. Understanding the contextual factors that may interfere or enhance enrichment of psychiatric mental health nursing experience is very important. Aim: To explore the experiences of nursing students who completed their psychiatric clinical practice at a Saudi Arabian University. Method: Data were collected thought the use of focus group discussion. A total of 20 third year female nursing students who completed the Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Course were agreed to participated and divided into 4 focus groups. Data were transcribed and thematic analysis was done through the use of Nvivo 9. Result: Three main themes were identified and under each theme a number of subthemes were emerged. The main three themes are: factors related to the student, factors related to the clinical supervisor, and factor related the clinical environment. Conclusion: The result of this study indicated that nursing students facing many obstacles during their clinical experience. A number of recommendations were supposed in order to support psychiatric nursing clinical practice.