A cross sectional study on the relationship between nursing students' perception of clinical learning environment and the willingness to care for older adult patients. (2021) - Sistani Allahabadi, Mohammad
Highlights: Learning environments in nursing education have a significant impact on students' willingness in caring for the older adults. Improving students' understanding of the clinical learning environment can guide them in developing individual and professional talents and abilities. Effective curriculum planning and providing a standard theoretical and clinical learning environment, can improve students' perception of learning environment and, of course, increase their willingness to care for the older adults. Abstract: Background: Considering the increasing population of the older adults, caring for them is one of the challenges of health care systems and this requires highly skilled and expert nurses. Aim: The main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between nursing students' perception of clinical learning environment and their willingness to care for older adult patients in the future. Method: 334 nursing students participated in this cross-sectional study. The mean score of nursing students' perception of clinical learning environment and willingness in caring for the older adults and their relationship were evaluated by two questionnaires. Results: Results showed that there is a significant relationship between nursing students' perception of clinical learning environment and their willingness to care for older adult patients (P < 0.05). It was found that by age increasing, students' perception of clinical learning environment increases. Conclusion: Providing an effective educational environment can be useful in increasing students' perception of the learning environment and their attitudes toward care. This will increase students' willingness in caring for the older adult patients in the future.