Chinese Nursing Interns Want Mentors Who Teach With Empathy, Not Just Hierarchy, Study Finds

A new qualitative study from China is turning a spotlight on one of the most quietly consequential relationships in modern healthcare: the bond between a nursing student and the clinical teacher who shapes their first real steps into the profession. Published in BMC Nursing, the research finds that undergraduate nursing interns in China are asking for something fundamentally different from the traditional, hierarchical model of clinical instruction. They want mentors who motivate them through relationship rather than authority, who weave hands-on experience directly into theoretical knowledge, and who attend to a far broader spectrum of learning needs than technical skill alone.

The research team, led by Yuqing Zhao of Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital together with colleagues from Tianjin Second People’s Hospital, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Tianjin Medical University, set out to answer a deceptively simple question: what kind of clinical teaching do nursing interns actually want? The question carries considerable weight. Undergraduate nursing interns are becoming an increasingly vital component of the nursing workforce in China and internationally, and the quality of the clinical internship, the critical transition from classroom theory to bedside practice, has emerged as a pressing concern for nursing educators worldwide.

Methodologically, the study took the form of a descriptive qualitative investigation. The researchers used purposive sampling to recruit 21 undergraduate nursing interns, aged between 20 and 23, all of whom were in the clinical practice phase of their training in July 2025. Each participant took part in a semi-structured interview, a format that gives respondents room to speak in their own words while ensuring that key topics, anticipated influencing factors, preferred teaching methods, mentor behaviors, expectations about the structure and current state of clinical placements, and additional educational needs, were systematically explored. The interview transcripts were then analyzed using Colaizzi’s seven-step method, a well-established approach to thematic analysis in nursing research that moves from careful reading of raw text through extraction of significant statements, formulation of meanings, clustering of themes, and eventual validation of the resulting thematic structure against the original data.

What emerged from that analysis were three primary themes describing the clinical teaching traits preferred by undergraduate nursing students. The first, which the researchers describe as relational pedagogy as motivational catalyst, captures the interns’ desire for teaching grounded in personal connection, encouragement, and emotional support rather than command and correction. The second theme, experiential integration of knowledge, reflects a strong preference for learning that fuses doing with knowing: interns valued mentors who could translate abstract theoretical content into concrete bedside moments and, conversely, who used real clinical events as springboards for deeper conceptual understanding. The third theme, expanding the learning ecology beyond skills, points to an appetite for growth in dimensions that traditional skills checklists do not touch, including professional identity, communication, ethical judgment, and the psychological demands of caring work.

The framing of that first theme is perhaps the study’s most striking finding, because it signals what the authors call a shift from hierarchical to relational pedagogy. In many clinical settings, including those shaped by longstanding cultural traditions of deference to senior clinicians, the teaching relationship has historically flowed in one direction: the expert speaks, the novice complies. The interns in this study described something else. They described teaching that works as a catalyst for motivation, in which the educator’s personal qualities, their warmth, their patience, their visible enthusiasm for the profession, ignite the student’s own desire to learn. In this view, the clinical teacher is not merely a transmitter of technique but a role model whose character itself functions as a pedagogical instrument.

The second theme, experiential integration, speaks directly to one of the oldest problems in health professions education: the persistent gap between what students learn in lectures and what they encounter at the bedside. The interns participating in the study indicated that they learn best when knowledge and experience are deliberately intertwined, when a mentor pauses at the bedside to connect a textbook principle to the patient in front of them, or when a post-procedure debrief converts a hands-on moment into durable understanding. This preference aligns with a broad body of educational theory holding that learning is most effective when it is situated in authentic practice, but the study grounds that abstraction in the specific voices and priorities of Chinese nursing interns navigating their formative clinical months.

The third theme broadens the frame considerably. The interns reported unmet multidimensional learning needs that extend well beyond technical competence. They wanted support in developing as professionals, in understanding the ethical texture of nursing work, in communicating with patients and families, and in managing the emotional labor inherent in caring for people at vulnerable moments of their lives. This finding suggests that clinical placements, as currently structured, may be underdelivering on dimensions of professional formation that interns themselves consider essential. The learning ecology of the clinical environment, the study implies, should be deliberately expanded to cultivate these capacities rather than left to chance.

The implications reach into the practical machinery of nursing education. The authors conclude that the cultivation of nursing professionals depends fundamentally on clinical educators, whose personal qualities can stimulate student enthusiasm for learning, and that this motivational potential must be channeled through progressive teaching methods while attending to the multidimensional clinical learning needs of students. Done well, they argue, this combination helps interns build a coherent professional knowledge system during clinical practice, allowing clinical education to transcend traditional frameworks and achieve deeper integration. More concretely, the findings are intended to provide a theoretical basis for designing selection, training, and management programs for clinical teaching nurses, calibrated to the Chinese cultural context in which those programs will operate.

The study’s timing matters. Health systems across the globe are grappling with nursing shortages, and undergraduate nursing interns are shouldering a growing share of frontline care capacity. At the same time, the internship represents the single most consequential phase of nursing education, the point at which theoretical knowledge either solidifies into professional competence or frays under the pressures of real practice. If the quality of that transition depends heavily on the relational and pedagogical skills of clinical teachers, then investing in those teachers, choosing them well, training them deliberately, and managing their teaching roles thoughtfully, becomes a strategic priority rather than an administrative afterthought.

The research also carries a methodological contribution. By applying Colaizzi’s seven-step analysis to a purposively sampled cohort and reporting the work in line with qualitative research conventions, the team offers a replicable template for exploring learner preferences in other institutions, other regions, and other healthcare cultures. The picture that emerges is of a generation of nursing students who respect expertise but respond most powerfully to educators who teach as relationships first and hierarchies second, who turn every clinical encounter into an integrated learning opportunity, and who take seriously the full breadth of what it means to become a nurse. For educators and hospital administrators, the message is clear: the future of clinical nursing education may belong less to the loudest authority in the room than to the most motivating presence at the bedside.

Subject of Research: Clinical teaching preferences of undergraduate nursing interns in China

Article Title: Clinical teaching preferences of undergraduate nursing interns in China: a descriptive qualitative study

Article References: Zhao, Y., Zhao, S., Zhang, W., Huo, Q., Wang, M., Sun, X., Li, H., Zhao, Y., & Lu, Q. (2026). Clinical teaching preferences of undergraduate nursing interns in China: a descriptive qualitative study. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05346-9

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05346-9

Keywords: nursing education, clinical teaching, undergraduate nursing interns, qualitative research, mentorship, China, nursing workforce, relational pedagogy, clinical internship, teaching methods, nurse mentors, health professions education