Abstract

Introduction: Clinical education is considered as the most important part of nursing student's education. At this stage, students acquire theoretical knowledge by educating in the clinical environment. Objective: The objective of this research was to evaluate the actual status and expected status of clinical education environments from the viewpoint of nursing students of Guilan University of Medical Sciences.  Methods: In this descriptive-analytical type of cross-sectional study, 147 nursing students studying in second to eighth semester (bachelor level) of Nursing School of ShahidBeheshti faculty participated. The reliable and valid research tool of CLEI (Clinical Learning Environment Inventory) was used in this research to collect data. It was provided to 147 nursing students under clinical education in hospitals and health centers in Rasht. Results were analyzed using SPSS 16 software and descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The mean score of student's attitudes was 54.13 in the actual status and 68.85 in the expected status, which the difference was 14.7%. The Wilcoxon test, used to compare the score of the actual status with that of expected status separately for domains, indicated that the difference between the two statuses was significant in all domains (P <0.001). Conclusion: significant difference between the expectations and the realities of the clinical education environment from the viewpoint of nursing students suggests the necessity of reviewing the planning process and implementation of clinical education programs with an emphasis on creativity and individualization.