THE CLINICAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: THE ATTITUDE OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NURSES TOWARDS MENTORSHIP AT HOSPITALS IN LITHUANIA

The research sought to determine the attitude of student nurses towards their clinical placement: clinical learning environment, communication with supervisor – mentor, and their satisfaction with the recently completed clinical placement. The research was performed by 283 students of the first to third study year from two Northwest regional higher education institutions for nurses in Lithuania. The students have recently completed their clinical placement at regional hospitals. A quantitative descriptive correlational design was used. The research instrument used was the paper version of the CLES (Clinical Learning Environment and Supervision) questionnaire. The research results revealed that more than half of the students were satisfied with their recently completed clinical placement. Their satisfaction was related to the study year. The student nurses were the most positive about the possibility to approach the members of staff during clinical placement and the fact that there were sufficient meaningful learning cases and situations during clinical placement. Clinical placement of the student nurses was supervised and assessed by supervisors – registered nurses (N=133) and ward managers (N=135). The student nurses assessed their personal contribution in clinical placement as good and very good. Those, who specified the highest personal contribution in their clinical placement, assessed the clinical learning environment the best. The most satisfied students were supervised individually during their clinical placements.