Background: Clinical teaching is an important and
essential teaching tool in the clinical area. Clinical
teaching and learning is essential for the development
and progression of experiential nursing knowledge.
Objectives: This research study aims to identify the
perceptions and evaluations regarding clinical teaching
among Year 2 and Year 3 nursing students, and also to
find out if there are any differences in the perceptions
and evaluations of the nursing students in regards to
clinical teaching.
Methods: The formula for calculating the sample
size was adopted from Morris (2005). The sample size
obtained from the calculation with the confidence
interval of 95%, was 132 participants. The participants
were taken from a universal population of 142 diploma
nursing students: 50 Year 2 nursing students and
92 Year 3 nursing students from the International
Medical College in Selangor. The research instrument
used was the Bedside Teaching Evaluation questionnaire
that was adapted with approval by the writer from
the University of Witwatersrand Department of
Surgery (2008). A pilot study was conducted on 20
participants of Year 1 to Year 3 nursing students from the
Assunta College of Nursing, with a Cronbach’s alpha
reliability index of 0.89.
Results: The data collected were analysed using
descriptive statistics to find out the participant’s
perceptions and evaluations regards clinical teaching;
and also to compare the perceptions and evaluations
between the two groups of nursing students from Years 2
and 3. The study findings showed that 46% (n=142) of
the respondents had a good feedback on all the five (5)
items under the perceptions of clinical teaching whereas
42% (n=142) of the respondents had a moderate view
on all the five (5) items in the perceptions of clinical
teaching sessions. With regards to the evaluation of
clinical teaching sessions, 50% of the respondents had
a moderate feedback on all the three (3) items in this
section.
Conclusion: Most of the participants perceived and evaluated the clinical teaching as an important teachinglearning
strategy in enhancing clinical learning.