Clinical Education Environment Assessment Scale

July 10, 2026 updated by: Demet Öztürk, Lokman Hekim University

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Clinical Education Environment Assessment Scale for Health Sciences Students

This study aims to develop and evaluate a questionnaire that measures how health sciences students perceive the clinical environments in which they complete internships or clinical placements. The questionnaire will assess areas such as patient characteristics, supervisor support, working conditions, physical facilities, and learning experiences.

Fourth-year health sciences students who have previously completed clinical training will be invited to complete an anonymous questionnaire. Participation is voluntary, and completing the questionnaire will take approximately 10 minutes. No intervention, treatment, image recording, or biological sample collection will be involved.

The results may help universities and clinical training institutions identify strengths and areas for improvement in clinical education environments. The developed scale may also support educational quality assurance and accreditation processes.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This cross-sectional scale development study aims to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Clinical Education Environment Assessment Scale for Health Sciences Students. The scale is intended to assess students' perceptions of the quality and suitability of the clinical environments in which they complete internships and clinical placements.

Clinical education is an essential component of health sciences education because it enables students to apply theoretical knowledge, develop practical skills, improve clinical decision-making, and gain experience within healthcare teams. Students' learning outcomes and satisfaction may be influenced by several features of the clinical environment, including patient diversity, supervision quality, working conditions, physical facilities, access to equipment, opportunities for active participation, and overall learning experiences. However, existing clinical learning environment instruments are generally developed for specific disciplines and may not fully reflect the needs of students from different health sciences programs.

The study will include fourth-year undergraduate students from health sciences programs who have previously participated in clinical practice or internship training. Students who have not completed clinical placements or who provide incomplete questionnaires will be excluded. Participants will be recruited from Hacettepe University Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation and Lokman Hekim University Faculty of Health Sciences using convenience sampling.

The proposed scale is expected to include approximately 31 items covering patient characteristics, supervisor characteristics, working conditions, physical environment and infrastructure, and learning experience. Participants will also provide limited demographic information, including age, sex, department, and clinical placement participation status. Completing the questionnaire is expected to take approximately 10 minutes.

The scale development process will include content validity, construct validity, and reliability analyses. Content validity will be assessed through expert review involving academics from relevant health sciences disciplines. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses will be conducted to evaluate the factor structure of the scale. Internal consistency will be assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficients and corrected item-total correlations.

Participation will be voluntary and anonymous. No intervention, biological sample collection, image recording, or audio recording will be performed. The findings may contribute to the evaluation and improvement of clinical education environments, support student-centered quality assurance processes, and provide a standardized tool for use in health sciences education and accreditation activities.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

310

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The study population will consist of fourth-year undergraduate students enrolled in health sciences programs at Hacettepe University Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation and Lokman Hekim University Faculty of Health Sciences. Eligible students will be those who have previously completed or are currently participating in clinical practice, internship, or clinical placement training.

Students from Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Nutrition and Dietetics, Speech and Language Therapy, Midwifery, Occupational Therapy, Nursing, and Audiology programs may be included. Participants will be recruited using convenience sampling through relevant academic staff, clinical education settings, and student representatives.

A minimum sample of 310 students is planned, based on the anticipated 31-item scale and the recommendation to recruit at least 10 participants per item for scale development studies. Participation will be voluntary, and all data will be collected anonymously through sel

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Fourth-year undergraduate student enrolled in a health sciences program.
  • Previous or current experience of clinical practice, internship, or clinical placement.
  • Able to read and understand Turkish.
  • Provides voluntary informed consent to participate.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • No previous or current clinical practice, internship, or clinical placement experience.
  • Incomplete questionnaire responses.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Health Sciences Students with Clinical Placement Experience
Fourth-year undergraduate students enrolled in health sciences programs who have previously completed or are currently completing clinical practice, internship, or clinical placement training. Participants will complete an anonymous questionnaire evaluating their clinical education environment.
Other: Observational assessment
Participants completed assessment forms. No intervention was administered.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Exploratory Factor Analysis Factor Loadings
Time Frame: Baseline (Day 1)
The factor structure of the newly developed scale will be evaluated using exploratory factor analysis. Factor loadings of the scale items will be examined to determine the contribution of each item to the underlying factor structure. Higher factor loadings indicate stronger association between the item and the relevant factor.
Baseline (Day 1)
Explained Variance in Exploratory Factor Analysis
Time Frame: Baseline day 1
The total variance explained by the factor structure identified through exploratory factor analysis will be calculated. A higher percentage of explained variance indicates that the factor structure accounts for a greater proportion of the variability in scale responses.
Baseline day 1
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy
Time Frame: Baseline (day 1)
The adequacy of the data for factor analysis will be assessed using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure. Higher values indicate greater suitability of the data for factor analysis.
Baseline (day 1)
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity
Time Frame: Baseline (day 1)
The suitability of the correlation matrix for factor analysis will be assessed using Bartlett's test of sphericity. A statistically significant result indicates that the correlation matrix is appropriate for factor analysis.
Baseline (day 1)
Confirmatory Factor Analysis Model Fit Indices
Time Frame: Baseline (day 1)
Confirmatory factor analysis will be used to evaluate the fit of the proposed factor structure. Model fit will be assessed using standard fit indices, including chi-square/degrees of freedom, CFI, NFI, NNFI, IFI, SRMR, and RMSEA. Better model fit indices indicate greater support for the proposed factor structure.
Baseline (day 1)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Lokman Hekim University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

August 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 1, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 10, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 16, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 16, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 10, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2026-XXÖ

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Health Sciences

Clinical Trials on Observational assessment

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Angola

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe