The impact of clinical placement location on nursing students’ competence and preparedness for practice

The challenges confronting nurses in today’s health care environments have highlighted the necessity for graduating students to feel both competent and prepared for practice. The aim of the aspect of the study reported in this article was to determine the relationship between the location of clinical placements and competence and preparedness for practice from the perspective of the nursing students. A quasi-experimental design using a pre-test post-test survey was used. The population consisted of all final year Bachelor of Nursing students at Queensland University of Technology, who undertook their clinical placement in either a rural or metropolitan location. The response rate was 65% in the pretest (n=137) and 57% in the posttest (n=121). The results of the study highlight the importance of both rural and metropolitan clinical environments in developing not only student competency but also students’ satisfaction with their clinical experience. The results suggest that the selection of a rural placement is more likely to occur when students feel competent, confident and organised about their clinical experience. Strategies to increase students’ perceptions of competence and confidence to undertake a rural placement are likely to increase students’ selection to ‘go rural’.