Developing student evaluation of the clinical learning environment scale for female college of health science Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Within nursing, there is a strong demand for high-quality, cost-effective clinical education experiences that facilitate student learning in the clinical setting. The clinical learning environment is the interactive network of forces within the clinical setting that influence the students' clinical learning outcomes. The identification of factors that characterize clinical learning environment could lead to strategies that foster the factors most predictive of desirable student learning outcomes and ameliorate those which may have a negative impact on student outcomes. In order to make comparison between clinical learning environment and explain variations in out comes of clinical learning there is a growing need in nursing research for reliable and valid measures of the student clinical learning environment. This research developed the student evaluation of clinical learning environment scale which measures nursing student perceptions of their clinical learning environment. A quality student clinical experiences considered critical to nursing education. This paper describes the refinement and testing of the student evaluation of clinical learning environment scale, an instrument designed to measure nursing student perceptions of the clinical learning environment. The study was conducted in two Female colleges of health science [Unaizah and Aljouf].The subject composed of two groups of nursing students and clinical instructors. The student group A total of 120 second year nursing students from above mentioned college completed the student evaluation of the clinical learning environment questionnaire in March and April 2007 in the 2[nd] semester. In addition 82 second year nursing students completed three pretest questionnaires from Unaizah and Aljouf during December in the 1[st] semester 2006.The clinical instructor group It comprised of 18 clinical instructors from above mentioned college. Four tools were used for data collection, namely a questionnaire format, to assess the important factors influencing student learning in the clinical setting. Questionnaire format, to assess aspects of the clinical setting that facilitate learning and that hinder learning. A questionnaire format for student evaluation of the clinical learning environment. It based on instructors and students input from the perceptions of important factors of the clinical setting and important aspect that hinder or help learning. It composed of 47 items with liker-based agreement response opinions, divided among four scales Communication and feedback, learning opportunities, learning support, and department atmosphere [initial questionnaire] and a questionnaire format, for student evaluation of the clinical learning environment. It based on student input from the initial questionnaire. It composed of 44 items with liker-based agreement response opinions. [Final questionnaire]. Data analysis indicated that students responded consistently to the instrument as a whole and to the four scales. Test-retest correlations for all scales were statistically correlated between individual student evaluations. Three items were not significant correlated. Overall, the Student Evaluation of the Clinical Learning Environment scale appears to be a reasonably valid and reliable measure: