"My mentor didn't speak to me for the first four weeks": Perceived Unfairness experienced by nursing students in clinical practice settings.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore the perceived unfairness experienced by student nurses during their undergraduate clinical placements. BACKGROUND: It is important that student nurses feel supported by practice staff during their clinical placement education experiences. However, it has been reported that learners can feel ignored, unsupported and bullied by others in the clinical environment and this has a detrimental effect on their learning. It is important to understand the student nurse perspective and explore ways in which their feelings of belongingness might be enhanced in the clinical area. DESIGN: A descriptive narrative approach was used to explore the qualitative data generated by the survey and interviews. Limited closed-question survey data were acquired to explore a selection of quantified survey responses about placements and mentorship. METHODS: A survey was conducted with 1,425 student nurses from adult and mental health degree nursing pathways, across nine institutions in the North West of England, UK. Unstructured interviews were undertaken with 22 student nurses from across these nine institutions. The data generated from both methods (free-text survey responses and interview) were thematically analysed. RESULTS: There were times when student nurses felt that they had been treated unfairly by various members of the healthcare team during their clinical placements. Unfairness was related to being ignored and unsupported or being used as an "extra pair of hands" and having their supernumerary status ignored. Student nurses want to have feelings of belongingness in the clinical area and value enthusiasm for teaching from mentors. Certain positive mentor qualities were identified through the data in this study. These have been used to inform a tiered model of mentorship, to inform future thinking about student nurse education. CONCLUSION: Student nurses can feel like they are being treated unfairly in the clinical area in numerous ways. Identifying ways in which mentorship practice can be developed to adequately support education is important. This can lead to satisfaction and development on both sides of the student/educator relationship. RELEVANCE TO PRACTICE: Exploring student nurse perceptions of their learning is important when attempting to enhance educational practice in the clinical setting.

Students' perceptions of their learning experiences: A repeat regional survey of healthcare students.

BACKGROUND: Student experience is an international concern and recent research has focused on initiatives to improve students' learning experiences and ultimately reduce attrition levels. OBJECTIVE: To determine similarities and differences between students' perceptions of their learning experiences between 2011 and 2015 in relation to campus-based learning, placement-based learning and personal circumstances. DESIGN: A repeat online survey in 2011 and 2015; using a questionnaire developed from thematic analysis of narrative interviews with a subsample of the target population. SETTINGS: Nine universities in the North West of England. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1080 students completed the survey in 2011 and 1983 students in 2015 from a target population of all students studying on commissioned pre-registration healthcare education programmes. METHODS: An online survey was made available to all undergraduate students studying on Health Education funded programmes within the region and survey respondents were invited to give demographic information and rate their agreement to statements on four-point Likert-type responses. RESULTS: Responses to a repeat survey of healthcare studying in the North West of England in 2015 were strikingly similar overall to those of an original 2011 survey. Although the students were positive overall about their experiences, a number were dissatisfied with some aspects of their experiences - particularly in relation to initial support on campus and whilst studying on placement. Four years on from the original survey, despite a considerable investment in improving students' experiences across the region, there appears to be little change in students' perceptions of their learning experiences CONCLUSION: In the short-term monitoring of student experience needs to be continued; and links to attrition (potential or actual) noted and acted upon. However, given that attrition from these courses has been a long-term problem and the complexity of its resolution a recurrent finding in the literature; new ways of framing and resolving the problem need to be considered.