Challenges Experienced by Student Nurses During Skill Acquisition at The Clinical Area

Abstract

Introduction: Acquisition of adequate skills has been shown to improve the quality of care provided to patients when the care providers are competent. The study explores challenges experienced by student nurses during skills acquisition in the clinical area so that strategies to minimize them are drawn. Methods: A systematic review in which Google search engines and Google scholar, and CINAHL were used to obtain published journal articles. The search terms used included: Challenges experienced by student nurses during skills acquisition in the clinical area, Challenges encountered by student nurses during hospital practice, Challenges experienced by student nurses whilst at clinical placement. Results: Challenges experienced by student nurses during skills acquisition are related to issues in the clinical environment, and learning opportunities such as shortage of clinical staffs and clinical tutors, little support supervision, shortage of materials, student allocations, role model, and short time for practicing in the clinical area, interpersonal relationship, and theory-practice gap. Conclusion: The challenges experienced by student nurses cut across the clinical area environment, the students, and the clinical instructors.