Australian clinical facilitator professional development needs: A cross-sectional study

Background: Registered Nurses are recruited from clinical positions to work as clinical facilitators, supervising nursing students' clinical learning. Few studies have reported on the capabilities of the group, nor offered clinical facilitators validated tools to support their professional development. Objective: To test the validated Capabilities of Nurse Educator (CONE) questionnaire with expert clinical facilitators. To use the modified CONE to investigate the Australian clinical facilitator capability for the role. Design: Cross-sectional survey design. Participants: A purposive sample of 235 Australian clinical facilitators. Method: Face validity testing was completed with five members of the target group. The modified CONE was emailed to the 235 Australian nurses with a link for the CONE to complete online. Appropriate statistical analysis was applied to the aggregate data. Results: All 93 items and six subscales remained in the modified CONE following minor rewording, of some items. Eight-one (n = 81) participants responded. Clinical facilitators are committed to supporting students to learn, and to their own life-long learning, however the survey results identified gaps in leadership and research capabilities. Conclusion: The modified CONE is suitable for use with clinical facilitators as both a self-assessment tool and for understanding group professional development needs. The results of this study will be beneficial in the design of future professional development for clinicians working with students in clinical settings. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd