STUDENT EVALUATION OF CLINICAL EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

comprehensive tool that concisely measured student perceptions of the clinical learning
environment in nursing. Multiple inventories exist to assess student perceptions of the traditional
classroom environment, but most are designed for use with elementary and secondary level
students, and none address the factors identified in the nursing literature as critical to an
assessment of the applied clinical environment. The purpose of this research endeavor was to
develop and test an instrument that measures student perceptions of the clinical learning
environment in the variety of agencies and sites used in nursing education.
Preliminary Investigation
The initial Student Evaluation of Clinical Education Environment (SECEE) instrument
was developed as a tool for student evaluation of their clinical environments (Sand-Jecklin,
1997). Attention to the validity of content was addressed from the initial steps in inventory
development. Items were selected based on a review of the literature, nursing faculty and senior
nursing student perceptions of important aspects of the clinical environment, and a review of
sample university–agency contracts and unpublished course evaluations. Senior nursing student
and nursing faculty at a large mid-Atlantic university were requested to identify characteristics of
the clinical education environment that they felt should be addressed by an evaluation instrument
via group discussion with researcher facilitation. A table of specifications was developed,
including criteria identified through each of these sources. Item content was taken directly from
the table, with particular attention to criteria identified by several sources, supporting validity of
instrument content. An additional criterion considered in tool development was the need for a
brief survey that could be completed by students in a short time frame. Instrument revisions
were made based on review of the instrument by evaluation and nursing experts.
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