Perceptions about Clinical Experience among Nursing Students in a Selected Teaching Institution of a Tertiary Care Hospital

Clinical learning is an important component of nursing education and takes place in a complex social contact of the clinical environment. Students participate in supervised learning sessions in real world health care environments, which provide them with the opportunity to put what theyve learned in the classroom into practice. Learning in a clinical setting creates challenges that are absent in a classroom. Clinical experience prepares student nurses to be able of doing as well as knowing the clinical principles in practice. The clinical practice stimulates students to use their critical thinking skills for problem solving2. At the same time clinical experience is one of the most anxiety producing components of the nursing program. Clinical instructors and mentors play a pivotal role in planning an effective clinical experience and providing an ideal clinical environment to the student nurses for optimal professional and personal grooming.