Clinical Experiences Nurse Anesthesia Students Find Most and Least Beneficial at Three Stages of Clinical Education

It is important to identify the clinical experiences nurse anesthesia students find the most and least beneficial to their clinical education. Once identified, clinical curricula can be organized in a way to best meet the students needs as they progress in becoming providers of anesthesia. No qualitative studies were found that describe beneficial and less than beneficial clinical experiences for nurse anesthesia students. In this study, a purposive sample of nine nurse anesthesia students, in three different phases of clinical education, was interviewed. They answered the question what experiences do nurse anesthesia students find the least and most beneficial The framework for the study was McAuliffes conceptual model of advanced practice nursing education. Interviews continued until saturation of the data occurred. The data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis to categorize the data and identify themes. The following eight major categories emerged clinical experiences, case types, anesthetics, procedures, patient acuity, preceptors, level of supervision, and professional culture. In the three phases of clinical education, student registered nurse anesthetists report specific skills and experiences as more or less beneficial to their learning. While there was some overlap, differences between phases demonstrate that students learning needs change over time. The results of this study may assist nurse anesthesia faculty in designing improved curricula for clinical education, as well as expand an existing conceptual framework of nurse anesthesia education.