Application of Kano model for optimizing the training system among nursing internship students: a mixed-method Egyptian study

BACKGROUND: Clinical experience is an important component of nursing education because it translates students' knowledge into practice, which serves as the cornerstone of nursing practice in health care delivery. PURPOSE: The study aims to explore the quality attributes required for optimizing the training system of nursing internship students using Kano model. METHODS: A concurrent exploratory sequential triangulation design was used for mixed-methods research. A total of 295 nursing internship students (Target Population) were recruited (whole-population sampling) from the study settings in Egypt. Of them, 280 (97.2%) agreed to participate in the study and completed the interview and the self-administered questionnaire. Data collection was done over 6 months from February to August, 2022. Inferential statistics and thematic data analysis were used to analyze the results. RESULTS: Findings revealed that there were 35 fundamental attributes required for high-quality nursing students’ internship training. Kano model was used to categorize and prioritize the 35 quality attributes. Kano analysis revealed that 22 attributes were categorized as "attractive" and 11 attributes were as categorized as "must be" and two were indifferent attributes. CONCLUSION: Incorporating the voice of nurse interns during their training is the key to providing efficient and high-quality internship training experience. It could give realistic impressions about the drawbacks of training and proposed solutions. IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY: Nurse managers and educators in clinical settings and educational institutions should put much emphasis on the training attributes and pillars to ensure that nursing internship students are mastering the skills of competent alumni. Provision of conducive training environment that fulfill the basic needs of internship students to maintain passion for learning as well as commitment of internship students to nursing profession will improve the satisfaction level and quality of education, training, and practice. Also, incorporating internship students support system with motivation strategies are helpful tools to maintain exemplary performance of internship students during the training period. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-023-01485-5.