PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF NURSING STUDENTS IN CLINICAL EDUCATION: A DELPHI STUDY

Clinical education is an essential part of the nursing curriculum. Clarifying the professional role and responsibilities of nursing students is one of the strategies for the developing clinical education, which will cause the provision of quality and safe care by improving the performance of students and ensuring the professional life of nursing. This study was conducted with the aim of determining the professional responsibilities of the nursing students in the process of clinical education of nursing students.

This study is a modified Delphi one, which was conducted in two rounds. The participants were 30 nursing instructors who were selected based on the purposive sampling. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. Data analysis was done with descriptive statistics and conventional content analysis using SPSS version 17 software.

Based on the results, the professional responsibility of nursing students in clinical education had six dimensions including: performing educational tasks with eight components, holistic patient care with four components, communication, interaction and information exchange with six components, acquiring professional competence with six components, strengthening individual capabilities with five components, and observing the principles of professional ethics with eight components.

Nursing students need to be informed of their professional responsibilities for effective learning in the clinical environment, because knowledge and understanding of professional responsibilities can facilitate the education process and provide safe and high-quality care to clients and improve the student's personality. It can also be a basis for the evaluation of students by instructors and development of appropriate interventions to promote the professional responsibility of the students.