J Korean Acad Adult Nurs.  2003 Sep;15(3):373-382.

The Study of the Nursing Students' Lived Experience of Clinical Practice at the Intensive Care Unit

• Park KS
• Hwang YY
• Choi EH

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception of nursing students' on-site clinical experience at intensive care unit(ICU), which will help on developing fundamental tool to enhance the effect of their clinical practice. METHOD: Van Manens hermeneutic-phenomenological method has been used to analyze the data. Participants consisted of 74 third-year nursing students who performed the clinical practice at an ICU in C university hospital. The students got the group interviews and kept the clinical diaries. Data was collected from series of group interviews and contents of the students clinical diaries. RESULT: Major concerns related to students clinical practice were found as follows: [being nervous about unfamiliar machines and situations], [being frustrated about the patients], [feeling of helplessness], [being stupefied from witnessing a death], [realizing the importance of health], [realizing individual patient's precious value through family's love], [realizing the importance of treating a patient as human being], [realizing the differences between theory and practice], [modelizing two aspects of nursing: professional and personal], [readiness to become a capable nurse].
CONCLUSION
We are able to obtain in-depth understandings about the nursing students lived experience of clinical practice at the ICU. Based upon this, there is a need to develop a better nursing intervention enhance the effectiveness of the nursing students clinical practice.

Keyword

Nursing student; Clinical practice; Lived experience

MeSH Terms

Humans
Intensive Care Units*
Critical Care*
Interviews as Topic
Nursing*
Students, Nursing