Abstract
Background: An internship programme is an important period that enables nursing students to work and function as primary nurses, with three to eight patients per shift, in order to develop their clinical skills by integrating theory with practice and improving their assessment, problem solving, and interpersonal skills. Having undergraduate nursing interns from different colleges in one clinical placement may explain the variation regarding the factors, challenges, and barriers that affect students’ clinical practice during the internship period. Study aim: This study aimed to explore the clinical practice experiences of nursing students doing internship years at different hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Method: A descriptive qualitative study was conducted with nursing interns from the Faculty of Nursing at a university in Saudi Arabia, who were doing internship years at different hospitals. The study participants were selected using purposive sampling. The data were collected via three semi-structured focus group interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Educational programmes, hospital orientation programmes, and mentorship programmes were all highlighted as the most important influencing factors in the interns’ clinical practice. In addition, unfair treatment, the ignorance of healthcare professionals, and being involved in non-nursing work were highlighted as challenging factors that negatively affected the interns’ clinical practice. Conclusion: There is a need for continuous educational programmes and mentorship programmes to be provided for all nursing interns, in particular by hospital education departments. In addition, a clear job description and list of responsibilities for all nursing interns should be provided at the start of the internship programme in order to prevent interns from being involved in non-nursing work.
Highlights
Nursing programmes in Saudi Arabia offer a four-year baccalaureate degree that consists of three years of theoretical education followed by an internship year, which consists of forty-seven weeks of clinical practice in a hospital setting with the direct supervision of the college
This demonstrated that the internship programme was affected by several factors and barriers within two major themes that emerged from the analysis of the focus group data
Unfair treatment, the ignorance of healthcare professionals, and being involved in non-nursing work were all identified as challenging factors that negatively affected the interns’ clinical practice
Summary
Nursing programmes in Saudi Arabia offer a four-year baccalaureate degree that consists of three years of theoretical education followed by an internship year, which consists of forty-seven weeks of clinical practice in a hospital setting with the direct supervision of the college. It is an important period that allows nursing students to work and function as a primary nurse, with three to eight patients per shift, in order to develop their clinical skills by integrating theory with practice and improving their assessment, problem solving, and interpersonal skills [3]. An internship programme is an important period that enables nursing students to work and function as primary nurses, with three to eight patients per shift, in order to develop their clinical skills by integrating theory with practice and improving their assessment, problem solving, and interpersonal skills. A clear job description and list of responsibilities for all nursing interns should be provided at the start of the internship programme in order to prevent interns from being involved in non-nursing work
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