the problems of nursing faculty in clinica l evaluation of nursing students

a survey was conducted to study the nursing faculty,s problems in clinical evaluation of nursing students in iran medical sciences-university, school of nursing and midwifery (tehran 1994) the especific purposes of this study were to identify the personal characteristics of the subjects. to identify the problems they faced in clinical evaluation in relation to certain personal characteristics of the nursing students, the evaluation tool itself, the physical facilities of the clinical area and the time of evaluation, and finally to estimate the correlation between the problems of clinical evaluation and the personal characteristics of the subjects. the population of this study were all the nursing faculty involved in clinical teaching of nursing students in medical - surgical nursing, pediatrics, psychiatry, nursing administration and maternal-child health care. the tool was a four-part questionnaire, with 50 close ended items. the first part posed ii questions regarding the personal charactersitics of the subjects. the second part questioned about evaluation problems in relation to certain characteristics of the students with 16 questions and finally it posed 11 questions regarding problems arising from physical facilities or time of evaluation. the data is presented in 27 tables. both descriptive and inferal statistics were employed for data analys is. findings regarding personal characteristics of the subjects revealed that a greater number fall in 40-44 years age group, the mean being 39 years. of the subjects, 97% were women, most were married and had children. their educational level was mainly at master degree in nursing in differnt field of nursing speciality, particularly medical-surgical nursing. the majority were employed as full timers and had experience as long as 10-19 years in nursing practice or education. the mean, for years of service, was 15 years. 25.6% had previous clinical nursing experience for more than 9 years. the mean for this measure was 6.02 years. 40.4% of the subjcts had been in clinical teaching for more than 15 years with a mean of 11.7 years. 46.4% had been in theoretical teaching for more than 15 years the mean being 11.4 years. the majority of clinical teachers (74.8%) supervised a group of 10 or more female nursing students, and 43,4% supervised a group of 10 or more male students. the faculty members, most experienced problems were those related to the evaluation tool (55.2%), the least complaint (36%) was evaluation in relation to certain personal characteristics of the nursing students. the k2-statistical test showed a significant correlation between evaluation problems and the students sex (p < 0.05). the k2 test also showed a significant correlation between the faculty problems and their being a part-time, master degree student (p<0.05). on the basis of the findings, the possibilities of implementing corrective measures in nursing administration, education and clinical services were discussed and suggestions for further research in these areas were made.