A pilot study of the experiences of undergraduate nursing students on clinical placement in rural New South Wales: data

A group of eight 2nd year nursing students from the Australian Catholic University, North Sydney undertook a four week placement in far western New South Wales. This included one week of orientation followed by three weeks of clinical placement in Aboriginal communities and other rural health care facilities. The orientation week included a cultural immersion course which covered cultural appropriateness preparation for work with indigenous clients and their communities, as well as information about surviving in the bush. The experiences of the students were recorded using pre- and post-questionnaires as well as field observations and interviews. - Pre- and post-clinical placement questionnaires (print); - Quantitative data from questionnaires in SPSS program/software; - Analysis of qualitative data (comments) from questionnaires managed with ATLAS program/software; - Field notes (print and video) collected during the final week of placement; - Transcripts of recorded interviews collected during the final week of placement. In partnership with: Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health (BHUDRH). Funded by: Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging Other participants: Violeta Lopez (Chief investigator), Jane Allnutt, Liesa Clague, Deborah Jones and Paul Bennett.