The Relationship between Nursing Student’s Perception of Clinical Learning Environment and Willingness to Take Care of Elderly Patient in the Future

Since aging population is increasing, taking care of them is one of the challenges in health care system. In addition, this issue requires skilled and experienced nurses feeling passionate and motivated. Thus, this study aimed to determine the relationship between students’ perception of clinical learning environment and their willingness to caring elderly patients.

All nursing students were participated in this cross- sectional study wich was conducted using census method. Moreover, this research was performed in hospitals affiliated to Kerman University of Medical sciences that elderly patients were hospitalized there. A questionnaire belonged to Saarikoski and Aday & Campbell was used in order to collect data. The data were analyzed through Pearson, Spearman, Mann-Whitney tests using SPSS version 16.

The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the nursing students’ perception of clinical learning environment (P=0.00). This means that students’ tendency for taking care of elderly patients is increasing by enhancing their understanding of clinical learning environment.

Due to the increasing requirements of the elderly community to receive nursing care, it is necessary for nursing educational planners to consider the positive impact of clinical environment on students’ willingness in order to improve nursing the elderly patients. Furthermore, they should take the necessary interventions in this regard.