Introduction: The importance of optimal clinical nursing education in professional skills development is undeniable. In clinical education, nursing students are often faced with problems. Recognizing nursing students' perception on clinical education is the first step to remove the barriers of this challenge. Methods This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the nursing students' perspectives on clinical education. 150 nursing students were selected randomly from nursing and midwifery schools (Tehran). Data collection instrument was a researcher made questionnaire consisting of five domains: objective and curricula, instructor, feedback to student in clinical field, clinical environment, supervision and evaluation. Mean and standard deviation were calculated for each item, using SPSS, ver.14. Chi- square test was used to compare the nursing students' perspectives on clinical education based on age, sex and the work experience. The significance level was considered 0.05.
Results: Mean age of the students was 21.58±26.97 students (66%) were male. 44 students (30.1%) had work experience (3.58±6.48 month). Male and female students had different perceptions in domains of clinical education (p<0.05). Nursing student had different perceptions as to objectives and curricula (p=0.039), how to deal with students in the clinical environment (p=0.032), supervision, and evaluation (p<0.001) with respect to their work experience duration. The most positive responses were in clinical instructor (81.5%) and the most negative ones were the clinical environment (33.66%), respectively.
Conclusion: Providing an optimal clinical environment and improving the supervision and evaluation of student practice should prioritized in schools of nursing and midwifery.
Keywords: Education; Nursing; Perception; Students.