CARING-ORIENTED RELATIONSHIPS IN STUDENT NURSES CLINICAL EXPERIENCE

Nursing as a practice-based profession requires that the student nurses learn how to become professional in the clinical environment. Many studies have addressed student nurses’ clinical learning and related problems, but few have explored the whole clinical experience of being a student nurse. This paper is a partial report of the study was planned to understand and gain deeper insight into Iranian student nurses’ lived experience of clinical placement. Seven student nurses were interviewed about their clinical experience during clinical placement. The researchers analyzed the verbatim transcripts using van Manen’s phenomenological methodology, keeping in mind the recommended six research activities. One of the most prominent themes emerged was a caring-orientated relationship and captured by four sub themes: How to manage the patient, connected relationship, patient reinforcement, and empathy. The aim of qualitative research in general and phenomenology in specific is to produce knowledge regarding the phenomenon under study. The knowledge produced in this study would be helpful for other researchers to open other horizons around the phenomenon of student nurses’ clinical experience and also, as a guide for nursing clinical education.