DISCUSSION ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF THEORETICAL LEARNING AND CLINICAL PLACEMENT IN NURSING IN MACAO OF CHINA

OBJECTIVE: Because of limited clinical practice units, Macao Polytechnic Institute creates two models for the arrangement of theoretical learning and clinical placement in nursing. The study is to evaluate the effects of the two models.

METHODS: Undergraduate students in the School of Health Science, Macao Polytechnic Institute begin their clinical placement from the first year. One year is divided into two semesters. Every grade has two classes. For every grade, in the first semester, class A takes Model 1 and class B takes Model 2. In the second semester, class A takes Model 2 and class B takes Model 1.
Model 1: Students have a very short of term of theoretical learning. They complete about half of their theoretical learning in about 1 month. Then they begin the clinical placement in hospitals or the community services. After finishing the clinical placement, students come back to school and continue the theoretical study.
Model 2: Students have theoretical study in the school until the Model 1 students complete the clinical placement. Then they begin their clinical placement.
The entire clinical units and the teachers are all the same for the Model 1 and Model 2.

The performances of the clinical placement were evaluated at the end of the clinical placement. All the students take part in the final theoretical and skill exam at the school in the end of every semester.

This article statistically analysis the performance of the students. The suggestions from the teachers and the students were analysis by grounded theory.

RESULTS: t-test was carried out. There is no significant difference of the scores between the two models in both theoretical exam and the clinical exam (all P is >0.05) in every grade. Two models each have its advantages and disadvantages from the view of students and teachers.

CONCLUSION: In limited clinical basements, we get the same learning outcomes from the two different models. In the Model 1, both the teachers and students feel some shortages of the theoretical knowledge of the students, but they found the clinical experience is very helpful for their subsequent theoretical learning. In the Model 2, the students are very satisfied because they can learn more theoretical knowledge before the clinical placement. But they also complain they may forget the theoretical knowledge when facing the final exam after a period of clinical placement.