Challenges and Difficulties During the Nursing Internship Program Using 5 Domains: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: The internship period for nursing students; the period of transition from nursing students to professional nurses who could work at different health organizations. Whereas the intern nurses were nurses who had achieved the required courses within the nursing department program and ready to join the internship nurses' program. Hence, it is of paramount importance to gain experience with various nursing skills, but it faces many obstacles and challenges including but not limited to organizing movement between departments and units, communicating with practitioners, and follow-up and coordination between colleges and hospitals. The current study aimed to assess the challenges and difficulties during the nursing internship program.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia, which included four hospitals. The study adopted the convenient sampling method accordingly, the number of participants was 112 (19 intern nurses (the trainees), 93 preceptors (trainers)). The data was collected through a questionnaire designed by the researcher and reviewed by the study team. The questionnaire consists of 5 domains (administrative procedures, organizational procedures, nursing procedures, challenges faced by the preceptors, and communication barriers).

Results: The results of the study in general showed most of the participants strongly agreed with the administrative procedures average (Mean 4.45), for the rest of the other four domains the participants agreed on the average range (Mean 4.0-4.1).

Conclusion: The overall high scores across domains reflect a generally well-received training program, with strong administrative and regulatory procedures. The preceptors' impression of the administrative procedures during the internship was very good (Mean 4.45), however, they faced difficulties in nursing procedures, especially regarding assigning non-nursing tasks to the interns' nurse, as well as barriers in communication due to the busyness of trainers.