Learning to become a nurse: students' reflections on their clinical experiences.
OBJECTIVE
To expose the significant events undergraduate student nurses reflect on during clinical experiences as they learn to become nurses.


METHODS
A qualitative study using reflective instruments of unstructured debriefing sessions and journal writing.


METHODS
Conducted in a tertiary hospital in South-eastern Queensland, Australia.


METHODS
Forty voluntarily consenting students were involved.


RESULTS
The findings of this study identify that students' interpretation of, and learning in the clinical context is influenced by: an interplay between the patient, registered nurse (RN) and the student's construction of themself as a nurse. Significant to the study and not previously identified is the way students enter the emotive life-world of the patient's experience. The study confirms that the RN makes a considerable difference to the student's experience. Furthermore, students begin to construct a personal identity of becoming a nurse through a process of developing confidence, confirmation of nursing practices and assimilating knowledge.


CONCLUSIONS
Insights into what influences students learning in the clinical setting, how they interpret events and begin to build a repertoire of reflective exemplars provides clinical staff and educators with valuable information to design meaningful clinical learning experiences that will assist students to become nurses.
Stockhausen
Lynette J
LJ
School of Nursing and Health Science, Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, Australia.
D002983:Clinical Competence; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D017145:Models, Educational; D016294:Models, Nursing; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D011231:Preceptorship / Q000379:methods*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011793:Queensland; D012933:Social Identification; D013338:Students, Nursing; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods