INTERACTION OF FACULTY GRADUATES AND SENIOR NURSING STUDENTS IN CLINICAL ENVIRONMENT: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

Aim: Clinical education experience affects a student's view of the profession, and negative experiences can cause them to move away from the profession. This study was aimed to determine the experiences and interactions of nurses and nursing students who were educated in the same faculty in the clinical environment.Methods: This phenomenological qualitative study was conducted between April-June 2022 in a university hospital in Konya, one of the largest cities in Turkey. The sample consisted of seven senior nursing students studying in clinics and five nurses working in these units who graduated from the same nursing faculty. Data were collected face-to-face using a descriptive information form and a semi-structured interview form. The in-depth individual interview lasted an average of 30 minutes. Permission was obtained from the institutions and ethics committee for the research. Data analysis was performed using inductive content analysis. Results: Five themes were created for the interaction of nurses and nursing students. The nursing students stated that working with nurses who graduated from their faculty had benefits such as increased self-confidence, liking the profession more, and improved communication skills and team cooperation. Nurses also reported that going through the same training program gave them an advantage in communicating and establishing cooperation and bonding. Conclusion: The research showed that the guidance of nurses who graduated from the same faculty in the clinical education environment increased the motivation and self-confidence of the nursing students and positively affected their perspectives on the profession. Our results draw attention to the effect of pairing nursing students with nurses from the same faculty in providing a strong bond, quality communication, and cooperation between nursing students and nurses in a short time in the clinical environment, and the necessity of investigating this effect with new studies.