Factors influencing the clinical learning experience of student nurses in Hail Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Clinical learning is an essential and integral component of nursing education. This study aims to explore the demographic profile of nursing students and the differences in their perception of factors influencing clinical learning experiences. This study employed a quantitative descriptive-cross-sectional approach. One hundred and ninety-two (192) nursing students from the College of Nursing, University of Hail, served as respondents. A modified questionnaire was adapted to collect the data; the return rate was 91%. Analysis of Variance (F-test) was used to determine the statistical significance of all the demographic factors that influence clinical learning experience, except for gender, which was analyzed with t-test. All statistical analyses were performed at 0.05 level of significance. This study was conducted in the first semester of the 2019-2020 academic session. The students largely “agreed” that all the factors influenced their clinical learning experiences. Mean responses were 4.03, 4.13, 4.15, and 3.99 for environmental, personal, interpersonal, and teaching-learning factors, respectively. For the environmental factors, a significant difference was observed in respondents’ perceptions based on gender (t=5.164; p=0.024) and year of study (F=5.303; p=0.002) while differences in perception of the influence of the student factor were significant only for civil status (F=3.152; p=0.045). Differences in perceptions of the influence of interpersonal factors on clinical learning experience based on gender (t=6.583; p=0.011) and year of study (F=4.504’ p=0.004) were significant while the teaching-learning factor was significantly based on age (F=3.085; p=0.029) and year of study (F=3.552; p=0.016). The nursing students believed that environmental, student, interpersonal, and teaching-learning factors had an influence on their clinical learning experience. Respondents’ perceptions of the influence of environmental factors were significantly different based on the gender and year of study, while differences in perceptions of the student factor were only significant based on civil status. Perceptions of the influence of interpersonal factors on clinical experience were significantly different based on the gender, while perceptions for the teaching-learning factor were significant by age and year of study.