Coping strategies in clinical practice: the nursing students' lived experience

Abstract

This phenomenological study was designed to understand the lived experience of nursing students coping with the demands of their clinical practice. The Husserlian phenomenological approach was used. The data revealed several strategies that fourteen student nurses utilised to cope with the demands of their undergraduate clinical program. The participants discussed having a strong determination to complete their course and talking things over with family, friends, and other students as means of helping them get through it. They considered that only other nursing students could really understand the experience of being a student nurse. Therefore, a very effective student grapevine operated in their undergraduate program. The grapevine was used to disseminate information about all aspects of the course. Other strategies discussed by the participants were 'playing the game' and doing only what was necessary to complete the undergraduate program. This paper describes the learning strategies used by nursing students during their clinical practice, which has implications for clinical teachers and schools of nursing.