The importance of health care delivery in clinical environments outside the hospital is increasing, and there are a growing number of nurses working in the community. While the most studies have targeted hospital as the placement setting for nursing students, less is known about the students’ perceptions if they are placed outside traditional hospital settings.

Ida T. Bjork et al have conducted a study to explore nursing students’ opinions about their clinical placements outside the hospital, particularly in mental healthcare, nursing homes, and home care. The participants were the final year students who were assigned to those clinical environments, lasted seven to nine weeks.

The survey method was designed using the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI) that includes six subscales; personalization, individualization, innovation, involvement, task orientation, and satisfaction.

The main findings of the study were as follows:

• The nursing students who undertook practical placements in mental healthcare, nursing homes and home care were fairly contented with their clinical environments.
• The students’ contentment was quite similar in those three placement settings.
• There is a significant difference in overall contentment that related to students’ age. Speculatively, the older students indicate maturity that makes them more positive about placement in general, and allow them the ability to handle the challenges in three different settings.
• The total scores of placement in mental healthcare were the highest, given that working in mental healthcare is no longer the last option as indicated by a previous study.

Image: James Pallnsad – flickr