Clinical supervision and support: Perspectives of undergraduate nursing students on their clinical learning environment in Malawi.

BACKGROUND:  The nurse educators' role in clinical learning is to define the necessary prerequisites of an ideal clinical learning environment. OBJECTIVES:  The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) undergraduate nursing students' perspectives on clinical supervision and support in their clinical learning environment and their preferences in the clinical learning environment. METHOD:  A mixed method research approach was used to explore and describe clinical supervision from the students' perspectives on the features of their actual and preferred clinical learning environment. The study's population comprised all third- and fourth-year undergraduate nursing students (n = 219). A sample (n = 125) was randomly selected from the population for the quantitative survey of which 120 questionnaires (96%) were valid for analysis. The data collection for qualitative arm of the study comprised interviews conducted through purposive sampling interviewing 20 participants. Survey results were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (Version 16) and the qualitative data were analysed using the content analysis approach where themes were generated. RESULTS:  The study found that the participants were not satisfied with clinical supervision and support during clinical learning. The participants preferred improved clinical supervision and support in their clinical learning. Comparing the difference between actual and the preferred items of supervision the results were statistically significant at p < 0.05. CONCLUSION:  There is a need to improve students' clinical supervision and support at KCN. Nurse educators need to plan for clinical supervision and support effectively to promote proficient nursing graduates.

Teaching styles used in Malawian BSN programmes: a survey of nurse educator preferences.

AIM: This paper describes the teaching styles employed by Malawian nurse educators in the four year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programme, according to Grasha's (1996) five teaching styles. BACKGROUND: An analysis of the educational processes of undergraduate nurses in Malawi followed anecdotal reports from stakeholders on the low levels of nurses' performance in the workplace. It was postulated that, in most instances, nursing students are exposed to traditional teaching approaches that do not equip them with skills for a demanding and ever-changing healthcare system. METHODS: A survey was conducted as part of a two-phased, sequential, explanatory mixed methods study. The target population comprised fifty nurse educators (N=50) who were invited to participate in the survey. Data were collected using Grasha's Teaching Styles Inventory (Version 3.0). A total of 44 inventories (n=44) were returned amounting to a response rate of 88%. Survey results were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 16.0. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: The Expert and Delegator teaching styles were moderately preferred (x̅ 4.02; SD 1.06) by the majority of nurse educators (70.45%; n=31 and 86.36%; n=38 respectively). The Facilitator teaching style was the least preferred (x̅ 3.7; SD 1.43) by 66.90% of educators (n=29), who also reported weak facilitative skills in the sub-scales. Similarly, educators reported a low preference for the Personal Model teaching style (x̅ 3.6; SD 1.17). CONCLUSION: Teacher-centred styles tend to dominate the teaching activities of Malawian nurse educators in the BSN programme. Facilitative pedagogical approaches must be encouraged coupled with appropriate staff development that enables educators to facilitate learning with confidence, competence and self-efficacy.