Risk Work in Home Visits: Nursing Students' Safety and Supported Autonomy

BACKGROUND: As health care increasingly shifts to community settings, nursing students conduct home visits that involve safety, ethical, and emotional challenges, highlighting the need to understand their learning experiences, risk-management processes, and implications for clinical education. This study explored nursing students' learning experiences and risk-management processes during community home visits and implications for clinical education. METHOD: This descriptive qualitative study included 20 third- and fourth-year nursing students after community placements involving home visits. Semistructured interviews were transcribed and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Students described home visits as unpredictable, requiring ongoing risk assessment, boundary management, and adaptation of clinical knowledge to nonclinical environments. Instructor support promoted supervised autonomy through guidance and emotional support. Although students valued holistic and relationship-based learning, many reported limited interest in future home-care careers because of their novice status and preference for structured settings. CONCLUSION: Home-visit education requires clear objectives, structured preparation, safety protocols, supervised autonomy, debriefing, and faculty training.