Learning experiences of final year nursing students during clinical handover in central region nursing colleges

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Numerous learning opportunities exist in clinical handover but accessing them requires effort and careful planning since the primary goal of clinical handover is ensuring patient safety rather than teaching and learning. Clinical handover is the communication of vital information, professional accountability and authority for treatment of the patient from one healthcare provider to another. This study was done to explore the learning experiences of final year Malawian Central Region Nursing College students in clinical handover. METHODS: The study which was descriptive and phenomenological was carried out among the final year nursing students in Central Region Nursing Colleges in Malawi. To recruit the study participants, 28 in total, purposive sampling was used. The data collected in this study was done through face to face (F2F) interviews and focus group discussions (FGD). Colaizzi’s (1978) seven step approach was used for the data analysis and it was done manually. RESULTS: The four themes that were identified included student teaching and learning strategies, facilitators to learning during clinical handover, barriers to learning during clinical handover and improvement strategies for maximum learning. Among the most utilised teaching methods during clinical handover were question and answer, discussions and lecture method. Factors that facilitated student learning during clinical handover were student involvement, comprehensive sharing of knowledge and skills and presence of different health professionals. Poor time management, incompetent clinical teachers, limited resources, poor clinical handover attendance and poor relationships between nurses and students were the most attributable barriers to student learning. CONCLUSION: Interventions like clinical teachers’ acquisition of recent knowledge, skills, and attitudes, nurse or students’ motivation to learn, and the fundamental establishment of a conducive learning environment should be encouraged so that students can maximize the teaching and learning potentials that clinical handover provides.