Supportive relationship: Experiences of Iranian students and teachers concerning student-teacher relationship in clinical nursing education

BACKGROUND: Student-teacher relationship is a salient issue in nursing education and has long-lasting implication in professional development of nursing students. Nowadays, this relationship in clinical settings is different from the past due to changing in nursing education paradigm. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of students and teachers about student-teacher relationship in the context of clinical nursing education in Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this qualitative study that has been carried out adopting conventional qualitative content analysis approach, six bachelor nursing students and six clinical teachers in school of Nursing and Midwifery, were selected through purposive sampling. Semi-structured interview and participant observation were used for data collection. Interviews transcribed verbatim and analyzed using conventional content analysis through the process of data reduction and condensation, coding and also generating the categories and themes. RESULTS: Results of the study showed the existence of a type of relationship in clinical education in which supportive actions of clinical teachers were prominent. These supportive actions appeared as three major categories including educational support, emotional support and social support which emerged from data. CONCLUSION: The results of this study explicit the ways that support could be provided for students in their relationship with clinical teachers. It also determines the teachers’ need to know more about the influence of their supportive relationship on students’ learning and the best possible outcomes of their education in clinical settings.