Clinical learning experience among nursing students in Ankaful psychiatric hospital, Ghana

Pages: 29-34
Jude Arko (Department of Mental Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health and Allied Sciences University of Cape Coast, Ghana)
Rita Appiah Amponsah (Department of Mental Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health and Allied Sciences University of Cape Coast, Ghana)
Samuel Osae (Department of Education and Psychology, Faculty of Educational Foundations College of Education Studies, University of Cape Coast, Ghana)
Anthony K. Nkyi (Department of Guidance and Counselling Faculty of Educational Foundations, College of Education Studies, University of Cape Coast, Ghana)

The study assessed the satisfaction of Psychiatric Nursing Students in a clinical learning environment in the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, Cape Coast. The cross-sectional survey was adopted for the study. The purposive and convenience sampling technique was used to select 105 final year psychiatric nursing students for the study. The Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher (CLES+T) was used to gather data. Data was analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation and independent samples t-test. Findings revealed that psychiatric nursing students were generally satisfied with experiences from clinical learning environments. It was revealed that, varied factors influence satisfaction in clinical learning environment. Lastly, no significant differences were found on the basis of age and gender in psychiatric nursing students in terms of satisfaction in clinical learning environment. We recommend that stakeholders of psychiatric nursing training institutions must enact policies and programs aimed at the enhancement of psychiatric nursing student placement in the Clinical Learning Environment.