RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to analyze the contents and importance of clinical practicum education in adult health nursing.METHODS: This is a descriptive study using content analysis for identifying the items of clinical nursing checklists gathered from 13 university nursing programs accredited by Korean Accreditation Board of Nursing Education. Items in the checklist were standardized in accordance with the Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC) and categorized into simple-technical skill, complex-technical skill, and disease-specific care. The perceived significance of each item was examined by surveying nurses who in charge of nurse education from various clinical setting.RESULTS: A total of 182 items in the clinical practicum contents were analyzed, and the terminologies of each item were variously described among nursing schools. Fifty percent of the total items were categorized into simple-technical skill. In terms of clinical importance, expert validity results showed that nurses considered infection control, infection protection, and fall prevention as the most significant items, which was not the same as the most common items in the clinical nursing checklist.CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that standardized nursing terminologies are needed to describe a nursing practicum checklist. Clinical importance of each item in the checklist should be taken into consideration in developing a clinical nursing checklist to assist the students in achieving the competencies as a clinical nurse.