Nursing Students' and Instructors' Experience about Nursing Fundamental Course: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: The situations affecting teaching and learning nursing fundamental course may influence acquiring competencies in primary clinical skills. Several reasons have been mentioned for this problem. The aim of this study was to describe the experiences and viewpoints of nursing students and instructors on nursing fundamental course. Methods: This was a qualitative study using thematic analysis method. Fifteen nursing students, 4 nursing instructors, the head nurse of operating ward, and two nurses graduated from the university in which the study was performed, were selected through purposive sampling and interviewed. All interviews were transcribed, analyzed. Results: Using thematic analysis, a significant number of preliminary themes and 7 main themes each having few other sub-themes, were extracted. The main themes included educational factors, not respecting the standards in performing the techniques, the gap between theory and practice, motivation, human resources, communications, management staff, equipments, and physical environment. These main themes and other sub themes have been explained in the main article using direct statements of study samples. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed problems in communication in educational environment and interaction between instructor and students as well as lack of motivation among nursing instructors and students. These are the main principles of the appropriate teaching and learning. It is recommended that nursing education administrators pay more attention to these aspects of educational process and remove the causing factors.