Abstract
BackgroundThe clinical clerkship is a crucial stage in nursing training, yet a dissatisfaction at this stage may cause a nurse to quit in future. This study aimed to investigate the relationship among personality dimensions, spirituality, coping strategies and clinical clerkship satisfaction among intern nursing students.MethodsThis was a correlational, cross-sectional study. A total of 293 Iranian nursing students, who were fulfilling their clinical clerkship at university-affiliated hospitals in Tehran, were selected using cluster random sampling. All participants were provided with standard questionnaires including personality dimensions (NEO_FFI), spirituality, coping strategies (WoCQ), and satisfaction with clinical clerkship. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression.ResultsThe results showed that spirituality (β = 0.32, p < 0.001), problem-focused coping (β = 0.26, p < 0.001) and extraversion (of personality dimensions, β = 0.22, p < 0.001) played significant roles in predicting clinical clerkship satisfaction among intern nursing students. Regression analysis showed openness (β = 0.14, p < 0.01), extraversion (β = 0.16, p < 0.01), and spirituality (β = 0.23, p < 0.001) could significantly predict problem-focused coping style among intern nursing students. However, personality dimensions and spirituality were not good predictors for emotion-focused coping among these students (p > 0.05).ConclusionPersonality dimensions, coping strategies and, in particular, spirituality are good predictors of clinical clerkship satisfaction among intern nursing students. Therefore, paying attention to spiritual needs in nursing students, improving their problem solving skills in dealing with clinical stress and training extraversion characteristics can be effective in enhancing their satisfaction with clinical clerkship.
Highlights
The clinical clerkship is a crucial stage in nursing training, yet a dissatisfaction at this stage may cause a nurse to quit in future
Reality shock is defined as a contradiction that nurses encounter when they enter the clinical setting; this contradiction is raised when intern nursing students are faced with a mismatch between the principles or ideals they have acquired at the university and the situations that they experience in reality in clinical setting
While neuroticism was negatively correlated with dependent variable, all other variables were found to be positively associated with clinical clerkship satisfaction
Summary
The clinical clerkship is a crucial stage in nursing training, yet a dissatisfaction at this stage may cause a nurse to quit in future. Reality shock is defined as a contradiction that nurses encounter when they enter the clinical setting; this contradiction is raised when intern nursing students are faced with a mismatch between the principles or ideals they have acquired at the university and the situations that they experience in reality in clinical setting. This might cause a feeling of incompetency in students while caring real patients and reduces their satisfaction with the clinical clerkship [4]
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