(e.g. 3rd yr Nursing)
(with thanks to Juliet Sondermeyer)
OUTLINE OF METHOD
3rd year Bachelor of Nursing students spend half their working week in a clinical placement; they are encouraged to apply previous knowledge to their practice and discuss this in tutorials for Practice Strand units studied in this final year of their course. Students report on actual cases from their placement situation to the class in a 2hr group tutorial, with a facilitator to coordinate discussion and prompt application of knowledge.
Weekly lectures are largely skills-based, with topics relevant to the practice situation (e.g. giving an injection).
Clinical placements provide very varied experience; although all students may be in "acute care" situations each cannot experience the range of cases, or the nursing care, that can occur. The aim of this group problem-solving approach is to give them all an opportunity to engage in the anaysis of different "real" situations.
BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS
What is this method good for? |
Limitations |
Cases are central to all class activity.
Relates real-time practice issues to taught theory.
Requires all individuals to contribute.
Presents a range of settings to the class where individual experience is limited.
Gives students analytical practice within guidelines.
Promotes reflective practice. |
Only suitable for smaller groups if everyone is to contribute.
Will present issues outside scope of unit.
Requires skilled facilitation to get the best out of it (a capable and quick-thinking chairperson). |
 This model shown as a flow chart
WHY WAS THIS APPROACH CHOSEN HERE?
The third year practice unit is more process than content, and the outcomes are consciously set at an analytical level. When students bring in their own cases to be discussed by the group in a critical problem exploration they learn more about requirements for presenting cases as well as discussing their cause/treatment.
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