An iterative approach to enhance the clinical learning experience in Macao nursing education

Objective: The aim of this study was to reduce or eliminate the stressors to enhance nursing students' clinical learning experience through implementation of an iterative approach that developed a personalised response to student stress.Methods: A prospective cohort research design was applied to collect data from a sample of undergraduate nursing students across the four study years.An iterative approach was employed to improve students' learning experience and the Stressors in Nursing Students Scale-Chinese Version (SINS-CN) was used to measure student stress.Key problems encountered by students were identified,refined and the responding solutions were worked out and implemented among this group of students through their first year to fourth year.Results: The overall SINS-CN mean score (2.17-2.82) of students was declined to a moderate level.Conclusions: Having implemented iterative approach to address factors that led to stressful environments encountered by the nursing students,the overall stress score and each sub-dimension score decreased significantly.Therefore,it is recommended that this approach could be adopted by other colleagues in the nursing arena around the world.

Perceived stress among Macao nursing students in the clinical learning environment

Objective:This study aimed at investigation of the stress perceived by Macao nursing students in the clinical learning environment.Methods:A cross-sectional research was designed and 203 nursing students in a public higher education institute were recruited.The Stressors in Nursing Students Scale-Chinese Version(SINS-CN)was used to measure nursing students'stress.Data analysis includes descriptive analysis and analysis of variance.Results:The overall SINS-CN mean score was 3.33(SD=0.49),while the scores for different dimensions were:clinical,3.44(SD=0.54),education,3.35(SD=0.62),finance and time,3.31(SD=0.72),confidence,3.21(SD=0.60),and personal problems,3.03(SD=0.68).Among 10 most common stressors,four belong to the clinical dimension,four to the education dimension,one to the confidence dimension,and one to the finance&time dimension.Analysis for factors associated with stress indicated that no statistical significance was found in most demographic variables,except year two students'stress scores were significantly lower than those of students in other years(p values were between 0.000 and 0.026).Conclusions:Macao nursing students,to some extent,experienced stress in clinical learning environment and the stress level was higher than that of Hong Kong nursing students.The most common stressors were related to clinical and educational dimensions.The study suggests that teaching and learning modalities and the workload of nursing students should be reviewed.