The acquisition of quality clinical experience within a supportive and pedagogically regulated clinical learning environment is a significant concern for educational institutions (Papastavrou, Dimitriadou, Tsangari & Andreou, 2016:1). In nursing, the mastery of clinical skills learning is required to become a trained nurse, but due to limited opportunities for clinical skills training in clinical areas, undergraduates training at CSLs are an essential part of nursing education. From a sociocultural learning perspective, learning is situated in an environment. The growing student cohorts, rapid introduction of
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technology-based teaching methods and a shift from a teaching- to a learning-centred education all influences the environment of the students. These changes also affect CSLs and therefore compel nursing faculties to adapt to the changing learning environment (Dimitriadou, Papastavrou, Efstathiou & Theodorou, 2015:1).
Creating an authentic environment, facilitating motivation, and providing resources for multiple methods and repetitions within clinical skills training are all important for improving CSL learning environments from the student perspective (Haraldseid, Friberg
& Aase, 2015b:1). This is because a key component of a quality clinical learning environment is the quality of care delivered after learning (Dimitriadou et al., 2015:1).
Nursing education is a process that includes theoretical and practical learning and requires the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and skill. Nursing students needs a good clinical practice environment to apply their knowledge and skills as the clinical practice settings play an important role in the future direction of the nursing profession (Aktas &
Karabulut, 2016:124). One of the prerequisites for the training of competent students is to provide them with a good clinical environment because with Aktas reporting that nursing students' academic motivation increased as the quality of their clinical learning environment improved (Aktas & Karabulut, 2016:124).
Similarly, according to Hooven, the clinical learning environment has a considerable imprint on student learning with a positive learning environment increasing student learning, the ability to gain information from the student perspective about the learning environment is therefore essential to nursing education (Hooven, 2015:421). The quality of clinical learning usually reflects the quality of the curriculum and the clinical settings as a learning environment is a significant concern in current nursing education (Papastavrou et al., 2016:1).
The nursing students' satisfaction with a learning environment is considered an important factor in contributing to any potential reforms to optimise the learning activities and achievements within clinical settings. According to Papastavrou and colleagues, the supervisory relationship is perceived by students as the most influential factor in their satisfaction in the clinical learning environment. Student's acceptance within the nursing team and a well-documented individual attention are key to students' satisfaction in a
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learning environment (Papastavrou et al., 2016:1). This agrees with Antohe and others in a study that established that an individualised supervision model was a crucial factor in students' total satisfaction during their clinical training periods (Antohe, Riklikiene, Tichelaar & Saarikoski, 2016:139).
The pedagogical atmosphere is considered an important factor, with reference to students' learning activities and competent development within the clinical setting, therefore, a study ascertaining that satisfaction could be used as an important factor to the development of clinical learning environments to satisfy the needs and expectations of students (Papastavrou et al., 2016:1). Nursing students are evaluated in clinical learning environments where skills and knowledge are applied to patient care. These environments affect the achievement of learning outcomes and their preparation for practice and student satisfaction with the nursing profession. So providing clarity of clinical learning environment for nursing education will assist in identifying the antecedents, attributes and consequences affecting student transition to practice (Flott &
Linden, 2016:1). This is because, clinical practice enables nursing students to acquire essential professional skills, but little is known about nursing students' perceptions of the clinical learning environment (Nepal, Taketomi, Ito, Kohanawa, Kawabata, Tanaka &
Otaki, 2016a:181).
A university in central Taiwan revealed that learning outcomes were significantly better when students' perceptions of their instructional activities were aligned with their preferred learning environment. The researchers concluded that educators need to be circumspect of students' preferences specially that of the learning environment. Educators may also need to pay attention to an individual student's perception and their intention in the learning environment and between the student's preferred and actual perceptions of the learning environment (Yeh, Huang, Chan & Chang, 2016:1).
The clinical learning environment can be enhanced by feedbacks provided by students as peer support and favourable communication with peers which are available in the learning environment, have a positive imprint on student learning. Therefore to ensure the most favourable learning environment for students, cooperation should be increased between school clinical staff, instructor skills should be developed, and students should
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be supported in the clinical environment (Sercekus & Baskale, 2016:134). Clinical practice is essential to nursing education as it provides experience with patients and works environments that prepare students for future work as nurses. However, this specialist environment has traditionally not been considered as a practice learning environments for first year nursing students (Lovric, Piskorjanac, Pelvic, Vujanic, Ratkovic, Luketic, Pluzaric, Matijasic-Bodalec, Barac & Zvanut, 2016:48; Mccallum, Lamont & Kerr, 2016:182). Students' exposure to clinical learning environment is one of the most important factors affecting the teaching-learning process in clinical settings.
Identifying challenges of nursing students in the clinical learning environment could improve training and enhance the quality of its planning and promotion of the students (Jamshidi, Molazem, Sharif, Torabizadeh & Najafi Kalyani, 2016:1).
Even in self-directed learning in nursing education which has a number advantages over traditional learning methods with regards to students' academic performance and the development of positive attitudes to the learning process by both students and teachers.
It is therefore recommended that nursing educators provides a supportive learning environment with good teaching, clear goals and standards, appropriate assessments and workloads, and an emphasis on independence to encourage students to engage in SDL, which can, in turn, enhance their academic performance (Alotaibi, 2016:249).
Technological advances enable virtual learning environments to be used as teaching and learning platforms for nursing education. However, there is only limited evidence in the literature to suggest that the Virtual Learning Environment is used to support the education of student nurses education especially in practical settings (Wilson &
Hungerford, 2015:379). The clinical learning environment is an important component to training nurses, with technology not being advanced enough to replace it. Clinical placement is therefore an essential part of nursing education, and students' experiences on clinical placement can affect the quality of their learning. Understanding nursing students' positive and negative perceptions of clinical placement experience in a learning environment is, therefore, important (Salamonson, Everett, Halcomb, Hutchinson, Jackson, Mannix, Peters & Weaver, 2015:206), as clinical learning environment plays an
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essential part in student nurses' learning (Sundler, Bjork, Bisholt, Ohlsson, Engstrom &
Gustafsson, 2014:661).
A study in Indonesia conducted to assess students' perceptions of their educational environment and approaches to learning, and to determine if perceptions of their learning environment were associates with approaches to learning. The 232 nursing students completed two questionnaires that measured their perceptions of their educational environment and approaches to learning being based on the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measurement (DREEM) and the Approached and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST). The finding showed that the perceived educational environment was significantly associated with approaches to learning which highlighted the need to maintain a conducive learning environment. There is also a need to improve the management of learning activities to reflect the use of student-centred learning (Rochmawati, Rahayu & Kumara, 2014:724), with the clinical learning environment constituting an initial area of professional practice for nurses. However, Papathanasiou et al. (Papathanasiou, Tsaras & Sarafis, 2014:57), contend there is a noticeable gap between the expectations and reality of the clinical learning environment for the students during their nursing training. Therefore, reorganisation of the educational framework is needed with an emphasis on innovation and individualization (Papathanasiou et al., 2014:57), as most nursing students have to deal with variety of clinical and practical aspects of knowledge to become skilled professionals. Students perceptions may be considered an indicator of teaching quality as their positive perception is directly related to their effective professional learning (Magnani, Di Lorenzo, Bari, Pozzi, Del Giovane &
Ferri, 2014:55).
Similarly, positive learning experiences during clinical practice influence not only learning outcomes but also how students reason in future career choices. The supervisory relationship has the greatest effect on how student nurses experience the clinical learning environment in nursing, making it importance to include collaborative activities, between the educational and clinical settings, supporting the work of clinical instructors are established and maintained (Carlson & Idvall, 2014:1130). This is because nursing students performs their clinical practice in different types of clinical settings, and
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harmonising the clinical learning environment in CSL is important for students to be able to achieve desired learning outcomes (Wells & Dellinger, 2011:1). This is in line with a study that noted that nursing students' satisfaction with their placement did not significantly differ between various clinical settings, although, those with placements in hospital departments contended that sufficient meaningful learning situations occurred and that learning situations were multi-dimensional (Bisholt, Ohlsson, Engstrom, Johansson & Gustafsson, 2014:304). Some students indicated in the above study that, the atmosphere of the clinical setting made it difficult to achieve the learning objectives, and the study concluded that in the planning of the clinical placement, attention must be paid to whether the setting offers the student a meaningful learning situation where the appropriate learning result may be achieved (Bisholt et al., 2014:304). Effective clinical learning requires integrating nursing students into ward activities, with staff engagement being required to address individual student learning needs, as well as innovative teaching approaches (Henderson, Cooke, Creedy & Walker, 2012:299). Assessing the characteristics of the practice environments can provide useful insights as indicated by reports from various countries ;which note that students report similar perceptions about their learning environments (Wood & Mcphee, 2011:510). Clinical learning environments are most effective in promoting safe practice and are inclusive of student learners, but not seldom open to innovation and challenges to routine practices (Henderson et al., 2012:299).