Journal of Nursing & Care

Pathology of Clinical Education in Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Katayoun Jalali*, Leila Bazrafcan, Samaneh Sabaghian and Mohammad-Reza Dehghani

Introduction: Improvement in the quality of clinical education leads to training professionally competent nurses in different fields, especially intensive care units. This study aims to survey the nursing instructors and students' experiences about the existing challenges and complexities of clinical education in intensive care units.

Methods: This is a qualitative study based on phenomenology approach. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews carried out in educational hospitals of Mashhad nursing school. Nursing academic staff, instructors and students were selected through purposive sampling and enrolled in the study. Sampling continued until data saturation. Interviews, as agreed by the participants, were recorded and then downloaded word by word. Based on Guba and Lincoln's criteria, the researcher tried to increase the reliability of the findings through allocating sufficient time for collecting the data, using two colleagues familiar with the coding of qualitative data and their analysis and referring to the participants to confirm the data.

Findings: 10 nursing academic staff and instructors working in the intensive care unit participated in this study. To clarify various aspects of the subject, we performed two interviews with 6 nursing students and 5 nurses. The analysis of data yielded 1457 codes which were reduced to 612 and categorized into 3 main themes and 8 subcategories or sub-themes. The main themes included destructive factors, educational strategies and education in intensive care units.

Discussion: Education in the intensive care unit is a valuable opportunity for learners. They learn not only the clinical aspects of patient care but also appropriate behavior and relationship of the treatment team in critically ill patient care. Negative experiences indicate the impact of destructive factors on the quality of education in intensive care units. The instructors' awareness about the clinical education methodology competencies seems to be necessary.