Becoming a professional: What is the influence of registered nurses on nursing students' learning in the clinical environment?

This research was undertaken to understand the influence of registered nurses on nursing students' learning in the clinical environment to inform strategies to enable registered nurses to provide effective support to learners while also assisting nursing students to adopt approaches to maximise their learning in the clinical environment. A case study approach was applied in this research to explore descriptions of clinical experience of five final year nursing students. The student participants identified the importance of the clinical environment to their learning and wanted to and had actively managed their learning in the clinical environment. The students did not passively acquire knowledge or simply replicate what they observed from others. There was evidence that the students had strong and established perceptions of what constituted 'good' nursing and described an ability to discriminate between differing levels of nursing practice. Nursing knowledge was gained from respected registered nurses who were best able to describe and demonstrate the 'tricks of the trade' and 'little things that matter' when providing 'good' nursing. The outcomes from this research indicate an important role for registered nurses in both shaping nursing students' professional nursing identity and access to clinical learning.