Abstract:
Nursing is a practice-based profession and it is essential that pre-graduate
students are socialised in the clinical learning environment from the beginning
of their training. Consequently, clinical accompaniment is regarded as a vital
component of a nursing programme to offer the necessary support to pregraduate
students. The objective of this study was to explore and describe pregraduate
students’ view regarding the clinical accompaniment they received
as part of the clinical component of the four-year programme. In this study a
qualitative, contextual, explorative, descriptive and interpretive research design
was used to explore and describe pre-graduate students’ views of clinical
accompaniment as part of the clinical component of the four-year programme.
The findings of the study were based on how students viewed clinical
accompaniment and they revealed: inadequate support from nurse educators,
lack of resources, inadequate support from registered nurses, and disregard for
student status. Evaluating the clinical accompaniment of pre-graduate students
utilising a positive approach of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), gave students the
opportunity to give inputs into the aspect that works well (positive) as well as
the challenges (negative aspects) as perceived by pre graduate students. The
inputs were utilised to draft an action plan to move towards excellence in clinical
accompaniment.
