Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
Analysis
Data was analysed using Colaizzi (1978) 7-step data analysis
process. To achieve rigour in the study, credibility, auditability and
fittingness were addressed.
Findings and discussion
The findings revealed that both the academic and clinical staff do
not achieve the required level in terms of supporting students
learning in the clinical area. Six major themes which reflected the
students’ expectations as well as their experiences emerged: a need
for support, the learning environment, worker status, support
strategies, ways of learning and theory-practice integration. The
participants in the study perceived themselves more in the role of
workers than learners. They described the senior students,
particularly those with six months ahead of them in the training,
and the newly qualified staff as more supportive. Staff shortage,
increased workload and lack of time were identified as the factors
that influence the support of students.
A Need for support
The need for support during the first year particularly in the first
clinical placement was strongly emphasised by all the participants of
the study. This was a principal element of the discussion in regard
to their expectations especially when compared with the
participants’ experiences of their general nursing training. Inevitably
the type as well as the quality of support experienced by the
participants’ of this study was influenced by many factors. Broadly
speaking, the findings suggest that participants’ experiences were
more unsupportive during their clinical placement. The prime
message from the participants’ was a need for support and from
their perspective support implies to be taught how to perform the
midwifery skills during their clinical placement, to be supervised and
assisted while performing those skills, particularly within the first six
months of the course, which requires midwifery tutors to visit the
clinical area more often. In fact the need to assist students in their
clinical experience whether from the clinical staff, the educators or
other student colleagues is crucial and has been highlighted in the
literature by several midwifery (Chamberlain 1997, Begley 1999a,
1999b) and nursing (Wilson-Barnett et al 1995, Aston and
Molassiotis 2003, Hutchings et al 2005) authors.
The clinical environment
The reality of the clinical area is far from the ideal. In general there
is lack of recognition placed on the students’ educational objectives
and support for learning in the clinical area. This theme suggests
that in a good environment, meeting the students’ learning need is
a priority and opportunities are provided for students to ask
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