STUDENT NURSES' LIVED EXPERIENCE DURING INITIAL EXPOSURE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL HERMENEUTIC STUDY

Clinical nursing practice learning constitutes a central part of nursing education. Student nurses may experience problems and difficulties during their initial clinical exposure, therefore the aim of the current study was to explore in depth and interpret the lived experience of student nurses during initial clinical practice. A hermeneutic qualitative research design was used with purposive sample of 12 participants; 7 females and 5 males. Data were collected through semi structured interview using digital voice recording. Six themes were emerged from the data analysis as follows: patient related concerns; clinical reality shock; faculty related stressors; ward nurses' issues; peer influence; and students' coping. The study concluded that the initial clinical practice as explored by the study participants were negative and un-satisfactory experience. The study highlights the need to reform clinical teaching strategy and convey the necessity for creating innovative models for clinical education especially during the initial clinical practice.