Abstract
AimThe purpose of this study was to gain understanding of Norwegian students' experience of learning in clinical placement in Bangladesh without formal one‐to‐one supervision, by a personal mentor in the ward.DesignUsing focus group interviews with bachelor nursing students we explored the significance of ‘communities of practice’ in nursing practicum abroad, socialization and knowledge transfer.MethodSeven third year bachelor nursing students enrolled in a clinical placement programme in Bangladesh participated in focus group interviews prior to their departure to Bangladesh, during their stay in Bangladesh and after their return to Norway.ResultsThe Students’ marginality and ‘peripheral participation’ triggered insight and reflection. The challenging but advantageous position of the peripheral students was heightened further due to the lack of one‐to‐one supervision in the clinic. Their previous experience with problem based learning and group learning was an asset that made them more resilient and helped them to cope.
Highlights
Clinical placement is an important arena for undergraduate nursing education
This paper presents an oblique view on clinical placement in the Norwegian context and reports how Norwegian nursing students’ learn, socialize and cope in clinical placement in Bangladesh without the formal one-to-one clinical supervision by a personal clinical mentor in the ward that they are used to in Norway
In our analysis of Norwegian nursing students’ clinical placement in Bangladesh we mainly focus on knowledge transfer, group apprenticeship, learning facilitation, sponsorship, students’ role as legitimate learners, their socialization and how they handle challenges as they aspire to join the Communities of practice (CoP) they encounter during their learning trajectories
Summary
Clinical placement is an important arena for undergraduate nursing education. Access to the clinic gives students an opportunity to acquire practical skills and contextualized knowledge in bed-side situations. In the European context, nursing training and clinical placement traditionally took the form of an apprenticeship model where students spent most of their time in a supernumerary capacity working alongside qualified nurses in hospital wards. Such knowledge transfers were typically hierarchical, with little personal supervision and often based on unreflective copying of role model’s task performance (Spouse 1998a, 2001, Scott 2013). Approximately 50% of the nursing training constitutes of clinical placement (National Curriculum for Nursing Education 2008). Self-directed learning and PBL are regular features of the Bachelor nursing programme at the Nursing Faculty, Trondheim University College Faculty (National Curriculum for Nursing Education 2008)
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