Nursing Student's Comprehension of Community Health Nursing Training in Field: A Qualitative Research

Community health nursing education in filed is one of the main courses of Iranian nursing education curriculum; however, little scientific attention has been paid to the evaluation of community health nursing process so far. Therefore, the present study was conducted to explore nursing student's comprehension of community health nursing in field education. A qualitative study was employed using content analysis approach with 19 bachelor degree nursing students. Data were gathered through unstructured interview technique. The data analysis resulted in emerging 2 main categories as ‘suitable learning aspects for students’and ‘learning inhibitor aspects’. The participants mentioned the education in filed with its specific conditions as a way to personality development, employing theory in practice, in-depth learning, learning from various human resources, and achieving skill to teach patients. Inhibitor aspects were related to ineffective clinical instructors, inefficiency of management of training, and theory-practice gap. Clinical education of nursing students should cover active learning and personal/professional growth.It also should be compatible with community requirements. The study participants pointed out to factors which nursing education policy makers and nursing faculties should pay attention to in order to improve the quality of training community health nursing in filed.