Final year nursing students' experiences with administering medication in the clinical setting

Medication administration is performed by appropriately qualified nurses in their everyday practice. It is a skill that requires competency and accuracy, and is one that undergraduate nursing students practise – under the supervision of registered nurses – in clinical settings with real medications and real patients. This study aims to develop a substantive theory which offers an explanation of the experiences of these students in these environments. Nurses play a crucial role in the safe administration of medication within healthcare facilities throughout Australia. Registered nurses learn the process as undergraduate students within universities throughout the nation. Every patient has a right to receive correct medications from nurses who, as undergraduates, have been taught the correct procedure – both in the university environment and in the clinical settings of healthcare facilities in which they undertake their clinical experiences. Whilst both of these learning environments play a crucial role in preparing undergraduate nursing students, little research has been identified to explain what students actually experience in the process of administering medication when they are dealing with real patients and real medications in clinical settings. The following paper reports on a research project in progress which aims to identify the experiences of final-year, undergraduate nursing students administering medications in the clinical setting. Using a grounded theory methodology, it is intended that a substantive theory will be developed to offer an explanation of these experiences.