Iranian nurse students’ experiences of relationships with nurses in clinical setting

Background: Today, the importance of clinical education of nursing students to train them for transition to professional roles has been documented. In this trend, the communication process between students and nursing staff is one of the key variables. So, the present study aimed to describe such relationships based on their real experiences. Methods: The phenomenological approach was used and all participants were drawn from an affiliated teaching hospital to Medical Sciences University of Isfahan. Purposive samples of 10 nursing students were interviewed in-depth. Colaizzi’s analysis method guided the essential activities of the researchers. The reliability and validity of the present study was grounded on the four items: factual value, applicability, consistency and neutrality. Results: Seven major themes and related sub-themes were identified as following; students’ perception from staff’s behavior, students’ socialization, motivation, students’ professional attitudes, students’ skills and abilities, cultural factors and peer relationships. Conclusion: Findings of the research showed that nursing students experience the communication with nursing staff as an important issue, through which they can more conveniently enter to their professional role. The students’ experiences from the quality of this process shaped their attitude towards profession and working in clinical setting.