Clinical accompaniment let the voice of the pre-graduate students count

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.