Key Findings

The key findings from the project included:

• In phase one, most of the panel agreed all the items on the CLES+T have face validity for evaluating student nurses’ perceptions of clinical learning environments, supervision and teaching in both hospital and community settings in New Zealand. However, minor alterations may be required to some items in order to improve their face validity.
• In determining the construct validity of the CLES+T, Exploratory Factor Analysis found the strongest statistical support for a four-factor model: connecting with, and learning in, communities of clinical practice; role of the nurse teacher; supervisory relationship; and leadership style of the manager.
• The results demonstrate that the CLES+T is a reliable tool to measure student nurses’ perceptions of their clinical learning environments, supervision, and nurse teachers in hospital settings in New Zealand.
• Only limited comparison of specific factors between this study and that of Saarikoski et al. (2008) in Finland were possible. On the two identical factors (supervisory relationship and nurse teacher) the results show that NZ nursing students from CPIT rate their relationship with their supervisor and their nurse teacher significantly higher than do Finnish nursing students.
• There were significant differences in student’ place in the BN programme (year 1, 2, or 3) on students’ perceptions of three of the four factors. There is an increasingly positive perception of connecting with, and learning in, communities of clinical practice as students’ progress through the three years of the programme. First year students perceived their nurse teacher significantly better than both second and third year students. On average, third year students perceived significantly better supervisory relationships than second year students.
• There is a significant correlation between duration of the placement and students’ perception of their clinical learning environment. As the duration of the placement increased the students’ perception of connecting with, and learning in, communities of clinical practice increased, as did their perception of the supervisory relationship, however their perception of the nurse teacher decreased.

Key Recommendations

The key recommendation from the project was:

Use the CLES+T | Construct validity and reliability data from this study support the use of the CLES+T to evaluate students’ clinical learning environments in hospital settings in New Zealand. The CLES+T appears to have sufficient validity and reliability to be used by researchers, educators and clinicians who wish to monitor the quality of clinical learning environments.