Content area
Full Text
Investigations of operating room nursing students' experience of the clinical learning environment are limited. However, studies involving undergraduate nursing students and medical students indicate that the operating room is perceived as a challenging and stressful place in which to learn (Bowrey & Kidd, 2014; Callaghan, 2011; Lyon, 2003; Meyer, Van Schalkwyk, & Prakaschandra, 2016; Silén-Lipponen, Tossavainen, Turunen, & Smith, 2004). Learning within a clinical context is profoundly influenced by the learning environment (Babenko-Mould & Laschinger, 2014; Benner & Wrubel, 1982; Levett-Jones & Lathlean, 2009) and the necessity of an excellent clinical learning environment for nursing student learning has been established by several authors (Jessee, 2016). The classic work of Cowman (1998) stresses the importance of exploring learning environments from the perceptions of students and described students' learning approaches as responses to factors in the context rather than being due to inherent characteristics.
Background
Professional Role of the Operating Room Nurse
The operating room is a technical and complex environment (Bull & FitzGerald, 2006) where patients are exposed to a range of hazards (Anderson, Davis, Hanna, & Vincent, 2013; Nilsson et al., 2016), and it is the operating room nurse's responsibility to maintain and protect the patient's safety by preventing injuries and complications (Alfredsdottir & Bjornsdottir, 2008; Blomberg, Bisholt, Nilsson, & Lindwall, 2015). Operating room nursing entails the ability to see and understand patients as unique human beings, with technical proficiency, as well as medical and procedural knowledge (Bull & FitzGerald, 2006; Gillespie & Hamlin, 2009; Sørensen, Olsen, Tewes, & Uhrenfeldt, 2014). The technical nature of the operating room and the many dimensions of operating room nursing care make it particularly complicated; being skilled and adept on machinery and equipment, while simultaneously viewing and understanding patients as human beings, demands an ability to interact with technology and holistic nursing care. This interaction is important because being technically unskilled or insecure or lacking interest in patients may affect the nurse's ability to work and collaborate with other staff (Sørensen et al., 2014). Comparable settings have been described in other nursing contexts; a still relevant study by Almerud, Alapack, Fridlund, and Ekebergh (2008) of nursing within an intensive care unit refers to the necessity of interpersonal, as well as technical, expertise. Results revealed that insecurity about machines could...