Students' Perceptions of the Operating Room as a Clinical Learning Environment

Purpose:

Students undertake their clinical placement in various clinical settings for the exposure to and acquisition of skills related to that particular context. The operating room, for example, is a context that offers the opportunity to develop critical skills related to the perioperative care of the patient. Despite the numerous studies that have been undertaken in this field, few studies that have investigated the operating room as a clinical learning environment in the South African healthcare system have been published. The aim of this study was to determine students’ perceptions of the operating room as a clinical learning environment in a private hospital context.

Methods: An exploratory, interpretive and descriptive design generating qualitative data was utilized. Data was collected from nursing students undertaking their training at a private nursing education institution and private clinical learning setting. Ten nursing students participated in an open-ended questionnaire of which eight were returned, and twelve students participated in the focus group discussion

Results: From the results, four themes emerged, namely, ‘interpersonal factors’, ‘educational factors’, ‘private operating room context’, and ‘recommendations’. This study has highlighted some of the challenges experienced by students in the private sector operating room context. The opinion that the operating room offers an opportunity to gain skills unique to this context was expressed. However, despite the potential learning opportunities, the key findings of this study reveal negative perceptions of nursing students regarding learning experiences in the operating room

Conclusion:

Exploration into the specific preparatory needs of students specific to learning outcomes beforExploration into the specific preparatory needs of students specific to learning outcomes before operating room placement should be considered.  It would also be necessary to improve collaboration between lecturers, mentors and operating room managers so that a structured teaching programme may be developed for students entering the perioperative environment. Research into the extent to which operating room skills can be transferred to other departments may also reveal the value of operating room placements for the nurturing of critical skillse operating room placement should be considered.  It would also be necessary to improve collaboration between lecturers, mentors and operating room managers so that a structured teaching programme may be developed for students entering the perioperative environment.