Internship Program Challenges from Perspective of Iranian Nursing Students: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Internship program is among the existing strategies to support nursing students in the workplace, which is implemented in various forms in hospitals. Identifying the challenges experienced by these students could contribute to solving them and making the students more professional. The present study aims to explain the perspective of nursing students about the internship program challenges by adopting a qualitative approach. Methods: In this conventional content analysis study, eleven ۱۱ senior nursing students were purposively recruited from different medical universities in Iran. Data were collected through semi‑structured interviews. Data coding, classification, integration, and organization were facilitated by MAXQDA software (version ۱۰.۰) used for qualitative studies. The data were analyzed using Graneheim and Lundman’s model. Results: Internship program of nursing student challenges consist of three categories: Readiness deficiency, psychosocial challenges, and shortcoming of program management. The extracted subcategories were inadequate preparation of students, low readiness of clinical settings, support deficiency, professional misconduct, incomplete coordination between the campus and clinical settings, and defects in program planning and execution. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, policymakers, and administrators of internship courses in faculties and clinical settings could modify the program and its execution.

Keywords:

Internship , nursing , student , qualitative research