“This should be a compulsory placement for all nursing students”: An evaluation of pre-registration nursing students’ perceptions of learning on a mental health clinical placement

Aim

To conduct a longitudinal exploration of pre-registration nursing students’ perceptions of their learning on an immersive mental health clinical placement grounded in learning from people with a lived experience of mental illness (otherwise known as consumers).

Background

Enriching mental health clinical learning environments are crucial for positive mental health nursing outcomes. Though non-traditional clinical placement (i.e. non-hospital-based) models effectively increase student learning in a range of domains, little is known about the specific features of contemporary non-traditional placement settings that may be supporting student learning over time.

Design

A survey design in the form of a standardised evaluation tool with additional qualitative response questions was used to examine nursing students’ perceptions of learning whilst on a non-traditional clinical placement over a 5-year period. Non-traditional placement settings are alternative placement options to traditional inpatient/community mental health settings. The TREND Statement Checklist was adhered to.

Methods

Second- and third-year students studying a Bachelor of Nursing (N = 753) from eight Australian Universities completed a Student Placement Feedback Survey between 2019 and 2023. Data were collected via an evaluation survey including 7-items (rated on a 5-point agreement scale) and three free-response questions. Quantitative and qualitative responses were analysed over all observations and compared between the five years of student evaluations.

Results

Across five years, the immersive mental health placement was consistently rated by students as a highly valuable learning experience. Utilizing a Multivariate Analysis-of-variance (MANOVA) for the quantitative component revealed that student ‘learning from lived experience’ remained uniformly high and steady throughout 2020–2023. This was despite disrupted learning that ceased face-to-face tuition caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in ‘student enthusiasm for nursing’ was identified after the return to face-to-face learning. Qualitative analysis identified a greater need for preparedness prior to attending the placement and wellbeing support amongst students.

Conclusions

Over the five years, pre-registration nursing students report clinical skill improvement and enhanced knowledge following the immersive mental health placement alongside an increased desire for further skill development. Learning from people’s lived experience of mental illness and specialised facilitators was valuable for student learning outcomes. Increased support is needed for student mental health vulnerabilities and wellbeing ahead of clinical placements. Further research is recommended on the aspects of non-traditional clinical placements that may be protective for student learning.