Student nurses' experiences of their clinical accompaniment

Abstract

An exploratory, descriptive qualitative design was used to describe and explore how the students experienced their clinical accompaniment in a specific programme. The researcher conducted a tape recorded interview to a 14 individual students, who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study, transcription followed, then data analysis was done following the steps as described by De Vos, Srydom, Fouché and Delport (2005:334) citing Creswell (1998:142) where open coding leads to themes and subthemes. From the findings of this study it was discovered that the students experienced dissatisfaction in terms of their development of clinical skills to competence as they were not given an opportunity due to negative circumstances around their training. Recommendations were made to improve clinical accompaniment of student nurses for all involved so that the student nurses acquire clinical skills, knowledge and values.