Teaching efficacy of nurses in clinical practice education: A cross-sectional study

Background Clinical nurses play a vital role in clinical practice education; thus, it is necessary to help clinical nurses have teaching efficacy through the development and application of systematic education programs. Objectives To identify nurses' teaching efficacy for clinical education and analyze the influencing factors of teaching efficacy. Design and Methods The study used a cross-sectional design. We used a convenience sample of 263 nurses from two hospitals. Teaching efficacy, general characteristics, and perception of clinical practice education were collected via self-reported questionnaires. Teaching efficacy was measured using Hwang's (2006) questionnaire, while perception of clinical practice education was measured using the Clinical Nurse Teacher Survey developed by Nishioka et al. (2014). Participants completed the questionnaire directly. The collected data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVAs, and multiple regression analysis with PASW Statistics 18.0. Results The mean total score of teaching efficacy was 72.5 (range 21–105). The leadership for students subscale had the highest score (3.56 ± 0.59). The factors influencing teaching efficacy were length of clinical career (β = 0.26, p < 0.001) and perceptions of work satisfaction (β = 0.20, p = .005), clinical supervisory relationship (β = 0.18, p = .010), and nursing at the hospital ward (β = 0.13, p = .029). Altogether, these variables explained 28% of the variance in teaching efficacy in nurses. Conclusion Based on these results, nursing educators might need to develop greater confidence in their knowledge and enhance control of their teaching strategies. Nursing schools and hospitals might need to provide greater support and educational opportunities to nurse clinical practice instructors. Furthermore, constructing a system of cooperation between these colleges and educational hospitals, developing programs to enhance teaching efficacy, and identifying the clinical instructor's role are all necessary to promote clinical practice education.