Environmental Challenges to the Clinical Supervision of Nursing Instructors

Context: Nursing students must have the minimum necessary competencies to enter the nursing profession, and supervision in clinical education is one of the critical strategies to improve students' clinical skills. Clinical supervision in clinical education for nursing students leads to developing the desired standards in patient care. Accordingly, as was the objective of this study, an awareness of the challenges facing nursing instructors' clinical supervision can help improve the effectiveness of clinical supervision. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis approach. The participants were 18 individuals, including 11 instructors, three students, and four experienced nurses, who were selected using purposive sampling. The sampling process continued until data saturation. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed via the conventional content analysis approach. Results: Clinical supervision in nursing education is influenced by a non-constructive setting, which is characterized by (1) student overcrowding, (2) clinical education with limited equipment, (3) negative attitudes in the clinical setting, (4) physician-oriented education, and (5) the inefficiency of the education-treatment system to support students. Conclusions: Non-constructive supervisory settings disrupt the instructor's performance as a supervisor and increase the complexity of clinical supervision. Thus, recognizing the challenges in the environment and solving them by educational managers can pave the way for the effective implementation of clinical supervision in nursing education.