Clinical Learning Environment and Supervision plus nurse Teacher (CLES+T) scale: testing the psychometric characteristics of the Italian version.

A clinical learning environment is an “interactive network of forces within the clinical setting that influence the students’ learning outcomes”. International research indicates the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher scale (CLES+T) as the gold standard tool to assess the forces involved in defining a good clinical learning environment. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric proprieties of CLES+T Italian version. 875 Bachelor in Nursing students in 3 Universities in Italy partecipated in the study. Cronbach’s alpha, item to total correlations, shape indexes were calculated and factor analysis was performed using Principal Axis Factoring and an oblique rotation method. Results showed an internal reliability for the total scale of 0.95, with subscales ranging from 0.80 to 0.96 among factors; all items add value to the scale and the distribution of answers have good shape indexes. Factor analysis showed a 7-factors model as explaining more than 67% of the variance, the higher variance was found in the “pedagogical atmosphere” factor (37.61%). The nurse teacher factor in the Italian model is split into 3 sub-factors: theory-practice integration, cooperation with ward staff and relationship with mentor and student. These results enable an international debate concerning the theoretical structure of CLES+T and enable a wider comparison on supervisory models in guiding students’ clinical learning.