What Make Clinical Teaching Good in Nursing

A broad and comprehensive professional education should include both academic learning and practical experience. Many components contribute to the success of a clinical education, with two important elements being the clinical instructors and clinical preceptors. This study aimed to assess nursing students’ perceptions of clinical instructors and preceptors. A non-probability, convenience sampling method was used and involved all available nursing students. This research was conducted in different tertiary health care settings in Riyadh. The questionnaire for this study was developed from different evaluation methods, and a descriptive correlational design was used. Nursing students gave the highest score for clinical preceptors’ supervision, although only slightly higher than scores for clinical instructors and clinical experience. There was a strong statistical correlation between scores for clinical instructors and clinical experience and between clinical instructors, clinical experience and total instruction. Nursing students’ ratings for supervision from clinical preceptors were slightly higher than ratings for clinical instructors and clinical experience. In addition, perceptions of clinical preceptors, clinical instructors and clinical experience varied based on students’ educational level.