Practicum and clinical experiences: postpracticum students' views.

The clinical or practicum component of preservice undergraduate education across all disciplines typically is rated by prebaccalaureate students as the most important phase of their entire professional preparation. This study collected e-mail survey responses from 63 post-practicum nursing students who had just completed their culminating fourth-year clinical course. Students identified the most positive and the most negative aspects of that final practicum experience. These responses were compared with those reported by postpracticum students from the disciplines of engineering and teacher education. The cross-disciplinary similarity of these data related to postpracticum students' perceptions of this experiential learning phase of their preservice professional training was noted. The student voice provides a critical dimension to the program-enhancement process for all professional disciplines, and practicum organizers across the disciplines should value such student input and collaborate to improve the clinical phase of preservice education for all professions.