The Italian instrument evaluating the nursing students clinical learning quality

INTRODUCTION: The Italian nursing programs, the need to introduce tools evaluating the quality of the clinical learning as perceived by nursing students. Several tools already exist, however, several limitations suggesting the need to develop a new tool. AIM: A national project aimed at developing and validating a new instrument capable of measuring the clinical learning quality as experience by nursing students. METHODS: A validation study design was undertaken from 2015 to 2016. All nursing national programs (n=43) were invited to participate by including all nursing students attending regularly their clinical learning. The tool developed based upon a) literature, b) validated tools already established among other healthcare professionals, and c) consensus expressed by experts and nursing students, was administered to the eligible students. RESULTS: 9606 nursing in 27 universities (62.8%) participated. The psychometric properties of the new instrument ranged from good to excellent. According to the findings, the tool consists in 22 items and five factors: a) quality of the tutorial strategies, b) learning opportunities; c) safety and nursing care quality; d) self-direct learning; e) quality of the learning environment. CONCLUSIONS: The tool is already used. Its systematic adoption may support comparison among settings and across different programs; moreover, the tool may also support in accrediting new settings as well as in measuring the effects of strategies aimed at improving the quality of the clinical learning.