Baccalaureate nursing students' experience of dyadic learning in an acute care setting.

Abstract

This article describes a unique learning project designed to address the praxis gap between baccalaureate nursing students' clinical learning and theoretic principles of collaborative practice on an acute medical-surgical unit in Canada. The study was framed by the active engagement model to provide second-year nursing students a nontraditional approach to develop their nursing practice. Clinical faculty partnered with medical-surgical nursing staff and eight baccalaureate nursing students to explore the experience of collaborative learning and stakeholders' anticipated learning outcomes while working in dyads. A modified phenomenological approach was used in understanding the experience of dyadic learning through reflective journals, course evaluation data, and a semistructured exit interview for analysis. Four themes were revealed based on students' reflection of their experience: work engagement, relational practice, autonomy, and empowerment. These themes underscore the strengths and opportunities associated with this nontraditional approach to clinical learning.