Clinical supervisors’ experiences of factors affecting nursing students’ skills transfer from skills laboratory to practice

In South Africa, student nurses’ engagement in work integrated learning is a requirement of accredited nursing programmes. Successful work integrated learning requires collaboration between lecturers, clinical supervisors, preceptors and professional nurses in clinical facilities. Clinical supervisors included in the study are tasked with clinical teaching in the skills laboratory, supervision, support of nursing students with skills transfer during work integrated learning, and assessment. To explore the experiences of clinical supervisors regarding the factors that affect nursing students’ skills transfer from the skills laboratory to the clinical practice environment. A qualitative exploratory, descriptive research design was used. A total of 40 clinical supervisors were employed for clinical education across the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes offered at the school of nursing. Twelve clinical supervisors participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Three themes generated from the data revealed that the implementation of the skills laboratory methodology used in the school requires improvement. There are limitations in the infrastructure, and inadequate resources in the skills laboratory. Findings regarding the work environment included inconsistencies between clinical nursing education and expectations in practice; insufficient appropriate learning opportunities; student absenteeism; and lack of involvement of clinical staff in students’ work integrated learning. Closer collaboration is required between nursing education and practice for the preparation of the future nursing workforce for the country. The implementation of the skills laboratory methodology and the use of resources must be reviewed, and resources that simulate real life practice must be procured.