Structured pediatric clinical support strategy for student nurses

Student nurses frequently experience anxiety, worry, and lack of confidence during pediatric clinical postings due to unfamiliarity with pediatric procedures, fear of harming children, and communication challenges with pediatric patients and parents. These concerns adversely affect clinical learning and skill acquisition. To address this issue, a structured pediatric clinical support strategy was implemented among third-year B.Sc. Nursing students. The intervention included supervised instruction by clinical mentors, pediatric procedure demonstrations, return demonstrations, guided supervision, and the use of a clinical procedure record book. Students underwent pre-assessment using the Pediatric Nursing Student Clinical Comfort and Worry Assessment Tool on the first day of posting, followed by post-assessment after three weeks of exposure. The innovation aimed to enhance comfort, confidence, and competency while reducing worry and anxiety in the pediatric clinical learning environment. The strategy required minimal cost as existing institutional resources, faculty supervision, and hospital facilities were utilized. Effectiveness was measured through pre- and post-test comfort and worry scores, clinical competency evaluation, student participation, and reduction in reported anxiety. Findings showed improvement in mean comfort scores from 21.84 to 22.21 and reduction in worry scores from 12.48 to 11.32, with significant reduction in worry after intervention (t = 2.52, p < 0.05).