Challenges Experienced by Nursing Students in the Clinical Learning Environment: A Cross-sectional Study in Hospitals within Koforidua, Eastern Region of Ghana

Abstract

Abstract Nursing students have a crucial role to play in healthcare services while they are in training. It is an essential step in their professional practice preparation. Unfortunately, nursing students often experience obstacles such as bullying behavior which makes some of them drop out of nursing education, regardless of their geographic location. With the increasing brain drain of nurses in Ghana, the nurse-patient ratio is likely to rise further if the phenomenon is not given attention. Therefore, it is crucial to thoroughly evaluate nursing students' bad experiences in the clinical learning environment for a remedy. Hence, the researchers aim to analyze the obstacles faced by nursing students during their clinical attachments in hospitals located in Koforidua, Ghana's Eastern Region. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a convenient sampling technique to select 130 nursing students from specific clinical learning environments. The study found that male nursing students (OR = 3.27 [95% CI: 1.67–4.88], p < 0.01), nursing students who are married (OR=-0.89 [95% CI: -2.57-0.80], p = 0.30), and Muslim nursing students (OR=-0.68 [95% CI: -2.27-0.41], p = 0.17) were more likely to be dissatisfied with their clinical learning environment compared to female, unmarried, and Christian nursing students, respectively. Male nursing students, Muslim nursing students, married nursing students, and nursing students who were relatively old were more likely to drop out of nursing school due to their intolerance of bullying and disrespect in the clinical environment, which led to dissatisfaction with their clinical experience.