This longitudinal study using a Constructivist/Naturalistic paradigm was designed to investigate factors influencing the professional development eight preregistration nursing students' during their practice experiences. A multimethod approach to data collection was used. An extensive literature review of nurse education texts was conducted. Research findings. The most significant influence was found to be effective mentorship. Characteristics of successful mentorship are best explained using frameworks derived from socio-cultural theories. Concepts of sponsorship, legitimate peripheral participation, scaffolding and zone of proximal development (ZPD) offer a more effective means to understand and implement an educational partnership for work-place learning.
An impossible dream? Images of nursing held by pre-registration students and their effect on sustaining motivation to become nurses Each year approximately 13 000 people enter higher education programmes leading to nurse registration in England. Evidence suggests that students enter nursing with strong images about how they will practice. This paper explores the nature of such images and how they are used to inform students' approaches to nursing practice. Findings come from a longitudinal study designed to investigate how students develop their professional knowledge whilst working in clinical settings. Eight pre-registration degree-course nursing students participated in the study. A multi-method approach to data collection was used over their 4-year programme. One involved in-depth interviews taking place during each of students' clinical placements. Data were analysed manually and subjected to a constant comparative method of analysis. From this material individual case studies of the ®ve completing students were constructed, with participants checking their own case study to ensure that it re¯ected their intended meaning. A second phase followed where cross-case comparison addressed each of the original research questions. The question relevant to this paper was: What were students' conceptions of nursing on entry, and how do these in¯uence their development? Findings indicate that participating students' preconceptions of nursing had a profound in¯uence on their decision whether to continue with their course, sometimes despite social and academic set-backs, or to leave nursing. An important contribution to realizing their aims was their supernumerary status and effective support from knowledgeable and experienced practitioners. These ®ndings indicate that with better understanding of the relationship between this form of personal knowing and practice, educators would have more information with which to select students and to design professional curricula.
This paper is concerned with the relationship between student and clinical supervisor (known as a mentor) and its influence on nursing students' development of professional knowledge during their clinical practice. The paper is based on the results from a longitudinal naturalistic study of eight nursing degree students during their four-year programme. The study was concerned with investigating and describing how nursing students develop their professional knowledge while working in clinical areas. During the data collection and analysis it became evident that the influence of the clinical mentor and the nature of the relationship were central to students' knowledge growth. By undertaking a content analysis for the relevant data and using an inductive approach, five key aspects of the student-mentor relationship emerged. These five aspects will be presented and discussed along with the implications for nurse education and the role of clinical staff [ NT Research 1996; 1, 2, 120-133]
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