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Clinical learning environment inventory: factor analysis

Version 2 2024-06-03, 19:53
Version 1 2019-03-08, 11:13
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-03, 19:53 authored by JM Newton, BC Jolly, CM Ockerby, WM Cross
Aim: This paper is a report of the psychometric testing of the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory. Background: The clinical learning environment is a complex socio-cultural entity that offers a variety of opportunities to engage or disengage in learning. The Clinical Learning Environment Inventory is a self-report instrument consisting of 42 items classified into six scales: personalization, student involvement, task orientation, innovation, satisfaction and individualization. It was developed to examine undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of the learning environment whilst on placement in clinical settings. Method: As a component of a longitudinal project, Bachelor of Nursing students (n = 659) from two campuses of a university in Australia, completed the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory from 2006 to 2008. Principal components analysis using varimax rotation was conducted to explore the factor structure of the inventory. Results: Data for 513 students (77%) were eligible for inclusion. Constraining data to a 6-factor solution explained 51% of the variance. The factors identified were: student-centredness, affordances and engagement, individualization, fostering workplace learning, valuing nurses' work, and innovative and adaptive workplace culture. These factors were reviewed against recent theoretical developments in the literature. Conclusion: The study offers an empirically based and theoretically informed extension of the original Clinical Learning Environment Inventory, which had previously relied on ad hoc clustering of items and the use of internal reliability of its sub-scales. Further research is required to establish the consistency of these new factors.

History

Journal

Journal of advanced nursing

Volume

66

Pagination

1371-1381

Location

Chichester, Eng.

ISSN

0309-2402

eISSN

1365-2648

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2010, Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Issue

6

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

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