The study examined the difficulties nurse administrators-instructors experience in clinical education.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in a Nursing College at the 18 Universities in Iraq from 21 September 2022 to 1 December online questionnaire was designed to assess the difficulties of the Clinical Learning Environment (CLE) from the perspectives of both nursing administrators and instructors. It consisted of two parts, with part one consisting of demographic data such as age, gender, university, educational level, and profession. Part two was focused on factors that affect the CLE and included 52 Likert-scale statements, using a 5-point scale; 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = not sure, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree. The statements related to six different CLE dimensions: clinical instructor challenges (8 statements), administration challenges (14 statements), hospital challenges (8 statements), laboratory challenges (5 statements), student-related challenges (10 statements), and organizational challenges (7 statements).

Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the data, and the results were displayed in tables. The results showed that the clinical learning environment in Iraq is facing several difficulties, which should be addressed to improve the quality of nursing education. Clinical instructor challenges had the highest frequency, with 106 (49.30%) challenges identified. Administration challenges followed close behind, with 53 (24.02%). Hospital challenges came third with 64 (29.19%), while laboratory challenges had 67 (30.44%). Student-related challenges had a total of 65 (29.12%), and organizational challenges had the lowest frequency, with a total of 33 (15.35%). Correlation tests were applied to identify relationships among the variables.

Clinical education requires strong cooperation between schools and hospitals. Clear communication and constructive feedback should be established through regular meetings. Students should be adequately prepared for their work with nurses and health care teams through resources such as textbooks, lectures, and practical experience.