The Importance of Theoretical Comprehension for Nursing Students’ Clinical Competence

Abstract

In nursing education, theory and practice are always linked because, in clinical practice, students have to apply the theory that they learn in the classroom. Students make clinical judgments based on scientific knowledge, theory, laws, principles, and some intuition. To ensure that the students are able to apply the theory learned in the classroom, support from clinical instructors, staff nurses, and fellow learners is also essential. Results show that the respondents perceived peer support as the strongest support they received in their clinical practice, compared with the support from their clinical instructors and staff nurses. The strongest predictor of clinical competence was theoretical comprehension, which pre-dicted 25% of the variance.