THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CLINICAL LEARNING-ENVIRONMENT SCALE

Within nursing, there is a strong demand for high-quality, cost-effect ive clinical education experiences that facilitate student learning in the clinical setting, The clinical learning environment (CLE) is the interactive network of farces within the clinical setting that influen ce the students' clinical learning outcomes, The identification of fac tors that characterize CLE could lead to strategies that foster the fa ctors most predictive of desirable student learning outcomes and ameli orate those which may have a negative impact on student outcomes, The CLE scale is a 23-item instrument with five subscales: staff-student r elationships, nurse manager commitment, patient relationships, interpe rsonal relationships, and student satisfaction, These factors have str ong substantive face validity and construct validity, as determined by confirmatory factor analysis, Reliability coefficients range from hig h (0.85) to marginal (0.63), The CLE scale provides the educator with a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate affectively relevant facto rs in the CLE, direct resources to areas where improvement may be requ ired, and nurture those areas functioning well, It will assist in the application of resources in a cost-effective, efficient, productive ma nner, and will ensure that the clinical learning experience offers the nursing student the best possible learning outcomes.