The perennial struggle to find clinical placement opportunities: A Canadian national survey

SummaryPre-licensure clinical placements are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain due to healthcare restructuring, workforce shortages, and increased student enrollment. This cross-sectional study was designed to nationally quantify the issues related to finding placements in this changing environment. A survey was developed based on the literature and key informant interviews, and a mailing list was developed to include clinical coordinators at all Canadian schools of nursing, licensed practical nursing, registered psychiatric nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and medicine. The response rate was 70% (113/162). Results showed that although 87% (SD = 13%) of placements were based on the previous year, 58% of the respondents reported difficulty finding a sufficient number of appropriate placements. The most frequent reasons for finding new placements were also the main reasons for the difficulty in finding sufficient appropriate placements—student requests, increased enrollment, and agency changes. Traditional methods for finding placements (historical use and faculty) remained the most common. Interagency/interschool collaborations, web-based registries, and innovations (such as schools developing their “own” placements) were evident but were still not the norm and used more by nursing than others. Given these results, it is suggested that consideration be given to expanding the repertoire of emerging and innovative methods for finding placements.