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Objective: This study examined registered nurses' perspectives of being supportive of nursing students and providing them with learning opportunities when on clinical placements. Background: In Australia, as part of their three-year Bachelors degree, undergraduate nursing students undertake a minimum of 800 hours of clinical placement. During these clinical placement hours, nursing students are supervised by registered nurses who are required to be supportive of the students and provide them with learning opportunities. Study design and methods: This study used a grounded theory approach. In this qualitative study there were fifteen registered nurse participants. Thirteen participants were female participants and two were male. Participants were individually interviewed. Transcripts from these in-depth interviews were analysed using constant comparative analysis. Results: The major category, an added extra, emerged from this study. An added extra is about registered nurses' perception that having a student is an added extra to their daily duties. The major category an added extra is informed by three emergent themes. The first theme was time, the second theme was workload and the third theme was wanting recognition. Discussion: Registered nurses perceived that their workloads tend not to be taken into consideration when they have nursing students. The literature suggests that nursing students often miss out on learning opportunities when they are on clinical placement because registered nurses do not have additional time to effectively support students' clinical learning. Conclusion: Participants in this study believed being supportive of nursing students and providing them with learning opportunities was an added extra to their daily nursing duties. Findings revealed registered nurses want to be recognised for the extra time and effort they dedicate to students' learning. Implications for research, policy, and practice: When allocated nursing students, registered nurses should have their workloads adjusted because being supportive of nursing students and providing them with learning opportunities is time consuming. Further research is recommended to determine if patient workloads are being decreased when registered nurses are allocated nursing students. What is already known about the topic * Registered nurses struggle to find the time to support nursing students with their clinical learning. * Management tend not to recognise the time and effort registered nurses dedicate to student learning. What this paper adds * Registered nurses perceive supervising nursing students as an added extra on top of their already heavy workload. * Registered nurses want to be acknowledged for their contribution to student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This paper reports on a major category that emerged as a result of a Grounded Theory study that explored Registered Nurses' (RN) understanding of the nursing standard requirement to provide nursing students with professional development during their clinical placements. Design Grounded Theory study. Setting Nursing clinical education. Subjects Fifteen registered nurses participated in this study (n=15). Thirteen were female and two were male. Main outcome measures In-depth semi-structured interviews were the means of data collection. Constant comparative method was used to analyse data. Results The notion of choice emerged as a major finding. Choice is conceptualised as choosing whether or not to be involved in the professional development of nursing students. The category choice is informed by two themes; unsuited to teaching, and respecting peers. Conclusion According to the Australian nursing standards RNs are responsible for providing professional development to nursing students on clinical placements. Results from this Grounded Theory study revealed that participants perceived it is an RNs choice whether or not to provide professional development to nursing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This discussion paper poses the question 'What enables or deters Registered Nurses to take up their professional responsibility to support undergraduate nursing students through the provision of clinical education?'. Background: Embedded within many nursing standards are expectations that Registered Nurses provide support and professional development to undergraduate nursing students undertaking clinical placements. Expectations within nursing standards that Registered Nurses provide support and professional development to nursing students are important because nursing students depend on Registered Nurses to help them to become competent practitioners. Results: Contributing factors that enable and deter Registered Nurses from fulfilling this expectation to support nursing students in their clinical learning include; workloads, preparedness for the teaching role, confidence in teaching and awareness of the competency requirement to support students. Conclusion: Factors exist which can enable or deter Registered Nurses from carrying out the licence requirement to provide clinical education and support to nursing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]