[Effective clinical instructor: a qualitative study]

ABSTRACT

Nursing is a practicing discipline. Clinical instructors need to acquire competence of an effective clinical instructor in order to make students ready to face the real world of providing care. Such characteristics get affected by socio-cultural background. In spite of many international quantitative studies, such characteristics haven't been defined clearly yet. The present study, therefore, aimed at investigating effective clinical instructor characteristics from the perspective of students and clinical instructors, qualitatively. Using qualitative method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten students and clinical instructors. All interviews were reordered and transcribed. The data were analyzed using constant comparative methods through qualitative content analysis method. Following themes were identified in data analysis: [1] recognition; [2] making clinical environments attractive; [3] communication skills; [4] clinical competencies [5] personal trait and [6] role model. Effective clinical instructors attract students to clinical education by identifying effective factors on clinical education, applying innovative methods in education, implement theoretical content in practice and having patient-center approach. They play as a role model for students with regard to their altruism, communication skills and having clinical competencies