Challenges and Opportunities of Internship Method in Technologist Surgery Undergraduate Interns: A Qualitative Content Analysis Study

Background: In the clinical environment, clinical education is one of the components of nursing education that transforms a student from a novice to a competent student. This professional transition can be taught in a variety of methods. One of these ways is training students through internships. The purpose of this study is to examine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) of internships for undergraduate surgical technology students. Materials and Methods: In this qualitative content analysis based on SWOT theory, ten faculty trainers, non-faculty trainers, operating room supervisors, and undergraduate intern students in the operating room field were selected based on the entry criteria. Then, based on the mentioned theory, face-to-face interviews were conducted with the participants, the questions were asked, and after extracting the codes, classification was performed based on the SWOT theory. Results: Based on the findings, four subcategories of strengths, weaknesses, problems, and opportunities were identified in the management and implementation domain. The most often used code for its qualities was enhancing the student's communication with the surgical team and lowering his nervousness. The most repeated code in its weak points were using the student as a tool and staying away from working scientifically. Conclusions: Based on the results of the present study, an internship in the operating room can solve the problem of lack of human resources to a large extent, however, it can lead to the improvement of the professional skills of students during the internship period, provided that the work of students, and staff is based on scientific principles.