Problems and Obstacles Facing Nursing Interns and Its Relation to Their Performance at Clinical Setting: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Nursing interns face multifaceted issues, obstacles, and problems that oblige them to use clinical skills that affect their performance; Some of the intern-nurses expressed anxiety that they had not assumed the opportunity to improve all of the psychomotor skills required to practice efficiently in the clinical setting. Aim: Assess problems and obstacles faced nursing interns and its relation to their performance at the clinical setting. Design: Descriptive, comparative design was used.Setting: Conducted at medical and surgical departments at Benha University Hospital and private Hospitals. Subjects: Convenience sample of nursing interns [150 from Benha University Hospital and 101 nursing interns from private Hospitals.Tools: a) Internship year problems questionnaires b) Nursing interns Obstacles Questionnaire. c) Observation checklist of nursing intern's performance. Results: level of problems occurrence that faced nursing interns during internship year was the average level (65.3%) at Benha University Hospital and Private Hospitals had low level (85.1%) of problems occurrence. Especially the highest mean score of problems dimension were clinical setting; supervision and communication at both hospitals.Additionally there was the highest level of total obstacles present at Benha University were (65.3.%) than private Hospitals that faced nursing interns during internship year. The most common obstacles faced nursing interns were social and cultural obstacles, while economic constraints were the lowest obstacles at the study setting.Finally level of nursing interns performance was satisfactory (84.0%) at private Hospitals and unsatisfactory (36.6%) at Benha University Hospital.More ever performance was higher in private Hospitals than Benha University Hospital. Conclusions: There were positive correlation between problems and obstacles facing nursing interns and there were negative correlation between Problems, obstacles, and nursing intern's performance. Recommendations: Nursing colleges should provide good relationship between faculty and training hospital staff and Preparation of nursing interns through well-organized program, especially the clinical experiences part.