A Survey of the Quality of Clinical Education from the Perspective of Nursing Students during the Outbreak of COVID-19 in Ardabil University of Medical Sciences

The COVID-19 outbreak is a main challenge for clinical education which has faced nursing students and their tutors with problems in clinical settings. The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of clinical education from perspective of nursing students during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ardabil University of Medical Sciences

The present study was a descriptive and cross-sectional design in which 234 nursing students from Ardabil University of Medical Sciences participated by convenience sampling method. Data collection tools were demographic questionnaire and a questionnaire for assessing effective factors on the quality of clinical education. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 22 using descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and analytical statistical tests (Independent-sample t test, One-Way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient).

The mean score of quality of clinical education in nursing students was 41.91 ± 13.56. The highest mean quality score of clinical education belonged to the domain of dealing with students (1.41±0.67) and the lowest mean score possessed by the domain of monitoring and evaluation (1.09±0.77). There was a significant relationship between students’ academic years and the level of quality of clinical education (p<0.001).

The quality of clinical education from the perspective of nursing students was moderate. From the students’ perspective, the dimension of dealing with students was reported as the most effective domain and the domain of assessment or evaluation was graded as minimum importance. Educational interventions are recommended to be carried out during the COVID-19 outbreaks including improvement of the educational goals in the clinical environment, improving clinical performance of the instructors, improving communication between medical staff and nursing students, revision of evaluation process of nursing students, and the enhancing the qualities of welfare facilities in medical centers