Perceived importance, self-rated performance satisfaction, learning stress, and practicum experiences among nursing students: A cross-sectional study with supplementary open-ended responses
- 1Department of Nursing, Hsin-Sheng Junior College of Medical Care and Management, Taoyuan, Taiwan
- 2School of Nursing and Center for Health and Geriatric Care Research and Development, College of Nursing, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan, Taiwan
Abstract
This cross-sectional study examined nursing students’ perceived importance and self-rated performance satisfaction regarding fundamental nursing practicum competencies, explored learning-stress scores across academic-achievement categories and psychological-counseling history, and descriptively summarized written practicum experiences. All 730 eligible third-year nursing students were invited; 28 did not participate, 702 returned signed consent forms and questionnaires, and 3 incomplete questionnaires were excluded, leaving 699 participants. Importance–performance analysis (IPA) used sample grand means (importance, 4.679; performance satisfaction, 4.503) as crosshairs. Paired importance–performance gaps and 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and 5,000 bootstrap samples assessed coordinate uncertainty and quadrant stability. Exploratory grade-group and counseling-history comparisons used analysis of variance and independent-samples t tests, respectively, with Benjamini–Hochberg false-discovery-rate correction. Exploratory adjusted linear models used heteroskedasticity-consistent (HC3) standard errors. The Core Competence in Fundamental Nursing Practicum Scale importance and satisfaction scores showed very high internal consistency (alpha/omega = .987/.987 and .985/.986, respectively), potentially indicating item redundancy. The nursing-process domain received high absolute ratings but fell below both sample grand means; its importance–performance gap was 0.229 (95% CI, 0.179–0.280). Communication and biomedical-science quadrant classifications were unstable across bootstrap samples, indicating sensitivity to the selected crosshairs. Exploratory analyses using the adapted learning-stress questionnaire showed higher reported stress scores among students in the lowest academic-achievement category. However, maximum-likelihood and ordinal diagonally weighted least-squares confirmatory factor analyses did not support the prespecified two-factor structure, and within-cluster dependence could not be modeled. Counseling-history comparisons were descriptive and did not evaluate counseling effectiveness. All 699 participants answered both open-ended questions; after non-substantive entries were excluded from thematic assignment, 217 non-mutually-exclusive segment-to-theme assignments remained. These findings describe students’ perceptions and exploratory associations rather than observed competence, validated stress constructs, or causal effects.
Related
- Ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity in shaping tourists’ willingness to support intangible cultural heritage inheritance
- Perceived parents’ relationship quality and young adults’ dating experiences
- Predictive performance and farmer satisfaction of Jaɓnde, a digital decision-support tool for dairy-cow ration formulation: results from field assessment in Burkina Faso
- Red–Blue and White Supplementary Light Increase Carotenoid Accumulation and Improve Fruit Quality in Satsuma Mandarin: Associations with Chlorophyll Content and Carotenogenic Gene Expression
- Caloboletus luolongensis sp. nov. and supplementary notes on Chenrenyua longispora (Boletaceae) from Guizhou Province, China
BibTeX
@article{tsai2026perceived,
title = {{Perceived importance, self-rated performance satisfaction, learning stress, and practicum experiences among nursing students: A cross-sectional study with supplementary open-ended responses}},
author = {Hsiu-Wen Tsai and Shu-Ching Chen},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0361978},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361978},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Perceived importance, self-rated performance satisfaction, learning stress, and practicum experiences among nursing students: A cross-sectional study with supplementary open-ended responses
AU - Hsiu-Wen Tsai
AU - Shu-Ching Chen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/05
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0361978
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361978
AB - This cross-sectional study examined nursing students’ perceived importance and self-rated performance satisfaction regarding fundamental nursing practicum competencies, explored learning-stress scores across academic-achievement categories and psychological-counseling history, and descriptively summarized written practicum experiences. All 730 eligible third-year nursing students were invited; 28 did not participate, 702 returned signed consent forms and questionnaires, and 3 incomplete questionnaires were excluded, leaving 699 participants. Importance–performance analysis (IPA) used sample grand means (importance, 4.679; performance satisfaction, 4.503) as crosshairs. Paired importance–performance gaps and 95% confidence intervals were calculated, and 5,000 bootstrap samples assessed coordinate uncertainty and quadrant stability. Exploratory grade-group and counseling-history comparisons used analysis of variance and independent-samples t tests, respectively, with Benjamini–Hochberg false-discovery-rate correction. Exploratory adjusted linear models used heteroskedasticity-consistent (HC3) standard errors. The Core Competence in Fundamental Nursing Practicum Scale importance and satisfaction scores showed very high internal consistency (alpha/omega = .987/.987 and .985/.986, respectively), potentially indicating item redundancy. The nursing-process domain received high absolute ratings but fell below both sample grand means; its importance–performance gap was 0.229 (95% CI, 0.179–0.280). Communication and biomedical-science quadrant classifications were unstable across bootstrap samples, indicating sensitivity to the selected crosshairs. Exploratory analyses using the adapted learning-stress questionnaire showed higher reported stress scores among students in the lowest academic-achievement category. However, maximum-likelihood and ordinal diagonally weighted least-squares confirmatory factor analyses did not support the prespecified two-factor structure, and within-cluster dependence could not be modeled. Counseling-history comparisons were descriptive and did not evaluate counseling effectiveness. All 699 participants answered both open-ended questions; after non-substantive entries were excluded from thematic assignment, 217 non-mutually-exclusive segment-to-theme assignments remained. These findings describe students’ perceptions and exploratory associations rather than observed competence, validated stress constructs, or causal effects.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -