An international focus on cardiac surgery nursing : student perspectives

Clinical placements provide opportunities for teaching and learning within healthcare organisations among students studying to become registered nurses (Barrett et al, 2016). These opportunities reflect the diversity within the nursing profession, and can include students engaging in settings that are reflective of a specific patient population, disease and/or treatment. Globally, cardiac surgery has become one of the most common settings in which teaching and learning opportunities are provided to undergraduate nursing students (Golightly et al, 2017). Within these settings, senior clinical nurses work with students to facilitate the development of their skills specific to the care of individuals before, during and after cardiac surgery. Skills gained by this experience may provide an entrée to the opportunities associated with becoming a registered nurse in cardiac surgery settings following graduation. The intended outcomes of such placements are a comprehensive knowledge of cardiac surgery patients and the trajectory of illness and recovery; the opportunity to engage with patients and families across the continuum of care; the development of cardiac-specific skills; and understanding the importance of team-based delivery of care (Golightly et al, 2017). Even though these skills are the intended outcomes, however, the specific perception of nursing students engaged in these clinical placements has not been examined to determine whether or not learning outcomes are being met. The purpose of this brief discussion paper is to provide a summary of students' perception of their clinical placements in cardiac-related environments, as part of the beginning stages of a quality assessment to address any potential gaps in knowledge.