A qualitative study on challenges and barriers encountered by nursing students during an internship program

Abstract

Nursing students' attitudes and levels of self-confidence can be negatively impacted by unfavourable experiences they have while completing an internship. This demonstrates the importance of conducting research into the experiences of nursing students as they advance through their education. This study investigates the difficulties and obstacles that nursing students encounter while completing their internships at a hospital in Medina, Saudi Arabia. The hospital is located in Saudi Arabia. During the course of the research, a qualitative exploratory study design was utilized, and a total of eight nursing students participated. In order to collect data, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were carried out with participants. In addition to that, a thematic analysis was performed on the data. The nursing students faced a number of significant challenges and problems, the most significant of which were a lack of support, mistrust, improper behaviour, and an absence of a preceptorship program. These problems have a negative impact on nursing practice in clinical settings because of how they manifest themselves. The findings of the study indicate that there is a high probability of achieving favourable results by enhancing the internship program.