Changing conceptions of practical skill and skill acquisition in nursing education

• Published in: Nursing inquiry Vol. 4; no. 3; pp. 184 - 195
• Main Author: Bjark, Ida T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-09-1997
• Subjects: Clinical Competence - standards; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate - organization & administration; Forecasting; Humans; nursing education; Nursing Education Research; Organizational Innovation; practical nursing skill; psychomotor skill; skill acquisition
• ISSN: 1320-7881; 1440-1800
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1800.1997.tb00098.x

Changing conceptions of practical skill and skill acquisition in nursing education
The learning of practical skill in nursing is not a priority of nursing education today. This is a result of a narrow and mechanistic concept of practical skill and its acquisition in nursing education. This paper reviews these conceptions as they have been developed in major textbooks for nurse teachers and in research articles on skill teaching, learning and evaluation over the past 50 years. Nursing research must move out of the laboratory and into the clinical setting in order to incorporate the typical aspects of practical skill learning in nursing. Future challenges in this kind of research are discussed.