Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

Nurses have an important social task contributing to health of the population. Therefore, Schools of Nursing need knowledge of different ways of learning in order to facilitate the highest level of nursing competencies. The aim of this presentation is to summarize the findings of a study investigating changes in nursing students´ preferred learning styles during their first clinical course. According to “The Learning Styles Helper´s Guide” by Honey and Mumford the concept of preferred learning style indicates the most rewarding way of learning for an individual and means the habitual manner of which the learner perceives and process, what has to be learned and makes it her or his own realization. It is not a fixed trait and no-one represents a pure type. Instead a learner has an individual learning style profile and the possibility to develop the other learning styles. Honey and Mumford describes four learning styles: activist, reflector, theorist, and pragmatic style. It is appropriate to begin to learn with the preferred learning style to succeed in the learning process. Though afterwards, the student can benefit from developing the ability to learn in other ways, as more powerful and adaptive forms of learning emerge, when the strategies are used in combination. Besides, when students are conscious of how to learn, they can facilitate learning of their patients and continue their own life-long learning. It is important for nurses to maximize their learning potentials in order to meet the patients´ complex and ever-changing individual needs for nursing.

Biography

Kirsten Nielsen has been Graduated from The University of Southern Denmark with the PhD thesis “Learning nursing skills in clinical training mediated by ePortfolio” and from The University of Aarhus, Denmark as a Master in Science of Nursing with the thesis “Learning of competencies in the classroom”. She is employed as a senior lecturer, programme coordinator, and researcher in The School of Nursing, Campus Holstebro, where she coordinates the Nursing Programme and continues research into the area of learning.
Email:kirn@via.dk