Clinical teaching is more than evaluation alone!

Gaining self-confidence as a nurse is an essential aspect of the nursing student's professional development. The purpose of this study was to determine clinical instruction behaviors that students perceived as important in promoting their self-confidence. One hundred thirty-nine baccalaureate students rated 16 clinical teaching behaviors as to the degree each helped or hindered their self-confidence as nurses. Factor analysis of these behaviors revealed five dimensions of clinical teaching that characterized the instructor as: resource, evaluator, encourager, promoter of patient care, and benevolent presence. Behaviors contributing to the dimensions of clinical instruction other than evaluation were rated by students as helpful in the development of their self confidence as nurses. Students' responses to open-ended questions provided further evidence of the importance of the nonevaluation dimensions. Focusing on evaluation to the exclusion of other aspects of clinical teaching may impede nursing students' professional development.