A Contents Analysis of Nursing Students’ Experiences of Practice in a Long-term Care Hospital

Objectives This study is intended to explore nursing students’ experiences of practice in a long-term care hospital by analyzing the self reflective journals written by nursing students after practice. The intent is to describe and understand students’ perspectives on their major practice experiences. Methods A content analysis method was employed to analyze the reflective journals written by 97 fourth-year nursing students who completed five days in a long-term care hospital practicum between March and May 2023. Results Based on nursing students’ experiences of practice in long-term care hospital, 21 themes were placed into five categories: “Thoughts before practice,” “What I liked during practice,” “Difficulties during practice,” “What could have been better during practice,” and “What I learned through practice.” Conclusions This study’s results offered an insight into nursing students’ experiences of practice in a long-term care hospital. The findings underscore the necessity of efforts to standardize the gerontological nursing curriculum for nursing students along with the efficient operation of gerontological nursing practice.