Nursing student voices: A qualitative thematic synthesis of education elements supporting nursing students' clinical learning during placement

Aim: to report a thematic synthesis of students’ narratives in free text comments from a national quality survey of Australian nursing degree students’ clinical placements. Background: Nursing student evaluation surveys are submitted to the Australian National Placement Evaluation Centre. Students in 36 Australian nursing programs are included. Design: Thematic synthesis of nursing students’ narrative comments. Methods: Data were sourced from 10,226 surveys submitted between July and December 2023. From these, the 3640 free text comments were extracted and tabulated to form the sample for synthesis. Three authors conducted a thematic synthesis and all five authors agreed on the findings. Findings: Student's comments generally portrayed a positive learning culture in clinical placement environments. One dominant theme ‘Support’ was interpreted as giving deeper meaning to students’ perceptions of the help and encouragement of placement facility staff. Three subthemes ‘Welcoming environment’, ‘Providing learning opportunities’ and ‘Teaching strategies’ described students’ ideas of what elements contribute to learning. Ten ways of teaching were revealed in students’ narratives as education activities. Students commonly referred to staff supporters, illustrating that various staff worked to ensure students were supervised during clinical skills practice and that students’ learning objectives were addressed. Conclusions: Staff-student relationships are paramount for students’ learning and students’ narratives revealed perceptions of a generally positive learning environment. The notion of support is implied as vital to nursing students’ positive experience of clinical learning during placements. Curriculum designers, university course convenors and placement partners may use the findings identified in this study to ensure academic and placement facility staff are aware of how best to support students. In this way, institutions may narrow the gap between successful and less successful nursing student clinical placements.