The inability to transfer classroom learning to clinical nursing practice: a learning problem and its remedial plan

Abstract

The inability to transfer classroom knowledge to clinical nursing practice is a common learning problem encountered by many nursing students. Manifestations of this problem may involve both the academic performance and personal development of the students: inability to solve problems in nursing situations; inflexibility and rigidity in the exercise of nursing care; fragmentation of nursing care; and apathy towards clinical practice. Because of the seriousness of this learning problem, a plan must be formulated to rectify it. This plan is developed with major emphasis on the teaching process, the student and the curriculum. One of the important roles of a teacher is to help students understand many widely useful relationships, principles or generalizations. In order to enhance transfer, nursing students must be given ample opportunities to apply the learned principles in a variety of nursing situations. Learning is a self-active process; an ideal transfer demands the students' conscious realization that transfer is possible. Students need to be committed to the belief that particular facts in the classroom study are pertinent in other situations. To promote transfer, the curriculum must be designed in such a way so that it has transfer value in terms of the students' goals and purposes. Furthermore, proper sequence of curricular activities is crucial if transfer of classroom knowledge to clinical practice is to occur.

The use of questioning strategies by clinical teachers

“…To be able to make clinical decisions, nursing students have to synthesize knowledge derived from nursing, biological and social sciences, and apply this to varying patient situations ( Creedy et al 1992 , Gerrish 1992). However, DeTornay (1989) and Wong (1979) suggest that students’ ability to transfer classroom theory to clinical practice is not automatic. One strategy for developing critical thinking skills involves questioning by clinical teachers during clinical experience (McCue, 1981, Infante 1981, Chase 1983, Klassens 1988).…”

Hand‐held video for clinical skills teaching

“…If these perspectives are true, and a separation exists between what is taught and what is actually done, or between the theory taught and the theory supporting practice, then students will be conscious of it, and it will affect engagement (Swain et al ., 2003). 402 M. Edwards et al In what has been called the 'ideal transfer' (Wong, 1979), a consciously engaged student is more likely to be aware that what is taught is meant to be applied. Arguably, a lack of engagement in the classroom may explain why some students derive less from a clinical placement than others.…”

Problem Solving in Undergraduate Medical Students

“…The recent work of Schmidt [13] has tended to support this, showing that material was better remembered by medical students when preceded by a clinical organiser in the form of a problem. Certainly many authors have identified the existence of difficulties in transferring material learned in one context into practice in the clinic [14,15,16], except when the contexts of learning and application are made as similar as possible and the cues for retrieval of the information are encoded with it at the time of learning [17].…”