Undergraduate nursing students’ self-efficacy in clinical teaching: a cross-sectional study

Effective clinical teaching by nurses supports the transfer of knowledge, skills and values amongst nursing students, nurses and health professionals, contributing to safe quality healthcare. Worldwide, professional nursing bodies include clinical teaching as a requirement for nursing registration. Despite this, graduating nursing students judge their clinical teaching capabilities to be less developed than other competencies. To enhance nursing students’ clinical teaching capabilities, research suggests they should first strengthen their self-efficacy related to clinical teaching; however, little, if anything, is known about the development of nursing students’ clinical teaching self-efficacy. This study aimed to examine the development of undergraduate nursing students’ self-efficacy in clinical teaching during their degree program. A cross-sectional survey design was used. Year 2 and final year (Year 3) nursing students in an Australian Bachelor of Nursing program completed the Modified Self-Efficacy in Clinical Teaching Scale. Multiple linear regression identified the predictors of clinical teaching self-efficacy and t-tests determined year-level differences. Item response frequencies and means were used to identify the clinical teaching tasks with which participants were most and least confident. For the total sample (n = 319), participants’ year level of study (p = .002) and peer teaching experience (p < .001) were significant positive predictors of clinical teaching self-efficacy. Year 3 participants’ clinical teaching self-efficacy was higher than that of Year 2 participants (p < .001). Year 2 and 3 participants were most confident they could teach with prowess and least confident they could impact a learner’s development. More than half of Year 3 students rated their confidence with clinical teaching tasks as moderate or low and Year 2 participants were less confident across all clinical teaching tasks compared to Year 3 participants. This study examined nursing students’ clinical teaching self-efficacy – an underreported topic. Results suggest that nursing students can develop their clinical teaching self-efficacy throughout their degree program. To enhance nursing students’ clinical teaching self-efficacy, university educators should consider integrating peer teaching experiences and best practice clinical teaching principles into curricula. This research supports future benchmarking of nursing students’ self-efficacy outcomes with those of other disciplines and degree programs.