Experience of First Time Nurse Learners in the Delivery Room

Abstract

Clinical practice is an essential part of nurse learners’ nursing education where acquired concepts and theories in school are applied in the clinical setting. Each of the nurse learners has his or her, own experience in the clinical area that can provide a greater insight to publicize a more effective strategy in nursing education or clinical rotation facilitation. The main goal of this study is to explore the nurse learners’ experiences about their practice in the delivery room. The delivery room provides a deeper perspective in nursing care because it offers a lot of chances to implement concepts learned and perform more complex skills from what is done on the wards and ultimately learn about maternal and child nursing. It is somehow different from the wards because it is viewed as a special area and requires agility, accuracy, confidence and a wider range of knowledge. The qualitative study was conducted using descriptive phenomenology design in acquiring and analyzing data about the clinical experience of sophomore nurse learners of Benguet State University College of Nursing 22 participants were selected through a produced inclusion criteria. Data were gathered primarily through a face-to-face interview and a focus group discussion and a diary or journal as verifying methods. These where then analyzed using the 5 steps of Colaizzi’s methods of analysis for phenomenological research. Analysis of their experience as first time nurse learners in the delivery room unveiled 4 significant themes. 1. First feelings before and after exposure describe how the nurse learners related to their first rotation in the delivery room. There are two subthemes following such category which are uncertainly before clinical exposure and fulfillment after the clinical exposure. 2. Another is the expecting the unexpected that encompasses the observation and understanding of the nurse learner regarding to their initial experiences inside the four walls of the delivery room. There are three subthemes that emerged from the second theme such as theory practice gap, nursing care mishaps and making sense significant events. 3. The relationship among the clinical facilitator and the health care team discuss the interaction of the nurse learners with the different members of the healthcare team. 4. Realization: appreciating experiences inside the four corners of the delivery room discusses the certain responses of the nurse learners where they mentioned their new perspective about the delivery room and fresh learners where they mentioned their new perspective about the delivery room and fresh learning. The learner which was cited in their experiences is viewed as coping mechanisms and driving factors in counteracting difficulties in the delivery room, the subthemes are mother’s efforts and miracle of life. The study point to the need for nurse learners to pursue their experiences in the delivery room with their clinical instructors is taking a facilitative role. Lastly, this study recommends to the college of nursing to establish more comprehensive monitoring and evaluating activities about the clinical experience of the students especially in special areas such as the delivery room.