The use of practice education facilitators to strengthen the clinical learning environment for nursing students: A realist review

Abstract

Background Research suggests that the interventions of practice education facilitators, who liaise between the higher education institution and the clinical placement sites, may strengthen the clinical learning environment for nursing students. However, there is a lack of evidence concerning the value of these roles in nursing education. Objective The objective of this study was to explore how, under what circumstances and why the practice education facilitator role can strengthen the clinical learning environment for nursing students. Design A realist review was conducted to understand the contextual factors and mechanisms that support or hinder the capacity of the practice education facilitator to strengthen the clinical learning environment for nursing students. Setting The settings are clinical areas where nursing students are directly involved with patient care. Participants The participants comprised academic and clinical staff involved in clinical nursing education. Methods This realist review was conducted in three overlapping and iterative phases: (1) the development of an initial programme theory explaining how the practice education facilitator role is thought to strengthen the clinical learning environment; (2) structured searches, screening and data extraction; and (3) analysis and synthesis to develop and refine the programme theory. Results The review included 27 research papers. Evidence from these studies led to the development of five context–mechanism–outcome configurations that explain how, under what circumstances and why practice education facilitators can (or can fail to) strengthen the clinical learning environment. Factors such as practice education facilitators' visibility and accessibility in the clinical area and their clinical credibility were found to influence whether clinical supervisors took the opportunity to seek support and guidance from them. Moreover, ward culture regarding student learning and opportunities to prepare for the role were found to influence clinical supervisors' motivation to carry out the functions of the role and develop professionally; this in turn further influenced whether they used the resources provided by the practice education facilitator. Conclusions Theory-based explanations of how, under what circumstances and why the practice education facilitator role may strengthen the clinical learning environment of nursing students may support further development of this role in the future.