Perceptions of undergraduate allied health students of the clinical learning environment and clinical educators’ attributes at the University of Ghana

Background. Clinical education is a vital aspect of the education of health sciences students and consists of two components, i.e. the clinical learning environment and supervision.Objectives. To determine the undergraduate allied health sciences students’ perceptions regarding clinical educators’ attributes and the clinical learning environment. Methods. This cross-sectional study included 169 undergraduate students, randomly recruited from various allied health professions programmes of the University of Ghana. The McGill clinical teacher evaluation tool and the clinical learning environment inventory were used to determine students’ perceptions of clinical educators’ attributes and the clinical learning environment, respectively. The Kruskal-Wallis test and independent t-tests were used to test for relationships between students’ level and programme of study and their perceptions. The level of significance was set at 95%. Results. Of the 169 participants, there were 99 (58.6%) male students, 79 (46.7%) third-year students and 82 (48.5%) medical laboratory science students. Only 16 (9.5%) participants indicated visits by lecturers during clinical rotations. The third-year students had a statistically significant perception of their clinical learning environment (p=0.000), while the differences between perceptions of clinical learning environment among the various programmes were also statistically significant (p=0.028), but not for clinical educators’ attributes (p=0.261). Conclusion. Allied health sciences students have positive perceptions of their clinical learning environment and clinical educators’ attributes. More frequent visits by lecturers to students during clinical rotations may ensure that student innovation is achieved in accordance with their classroom tuition.