Students’ perceptions and experiences on nursing process implementation to surgical care planning: A qualitative study

Abstract

Introduction: The theoretical model of the nursing process constitutes a scientific method of clinical problem solving and enables professional nurses to provide quality patient care. Its implementation in clinical setting remains a challenge not only for nurses but also for students. Appropriate preparation of nursing students will contribute to the development of knowledge and skills to implement nursing process with accuracy and competency after graduation.
Aim: To explore nursing students’ perceptions and experiences on nursing process implementation to surgical care planning.
Methods: A qualitative study was conducted and 12 semi-structured face to face interviews with open-ended questions were carried out in March-May 2022. Nursing students (purposive sampling), enrolled in the courses Surgical Nursing II (n=4 third-years) and Clinical Surgical Nursing (n=8 fourth-years), from a university department in Greece were participated. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach.
Results: Three themes describe students’ perceptions and experiences regarding the contribution of nursing process to surgical care planning: “effective nursing care”, “patient-centered care” and “organization of care provided”. Two themes describe students’ difficulties in implementing nursing process: “educational process”, “patient and family role” and “clinical environment”. Finally, the theme “educational experiences oriented to clinical practice and clinical instructor” describes participants’ suggestions to copy with the difficulties in the clinical setting during care planning based on the theoretical model of nursing process.
Conclusions: Nursing students expressed positive perceptions on nursing process implementation to care planning, highlighting factors that have an impact on its applicability in clinical practice and suggesting improvements to the educational process. Collaboration between educators and clinical nurses should be an ongoing process to improve learning outcomes. These results can be used for further research efforts with a focus on how to enhance the quality of the provided nursing care.