Graduate nurses' learning trajectories and experiences of problem based learning: a focused ethnography study

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Higher Education Pedagogy
• Qualitative Research Methods

Background:

• Problem-based learning (PBL) is widely used in health professions education to promote active learning.
• Effectiveness of PBL is challenging to measure, with a noted disconnect between student satisfaction and academic achievement.
• Reasons for the discrepancy between student satisfaction and academic achievement in PBL programs remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the experiences and satisfaction levels of nursing graduates from an undergraduate problem-based learning program.
• To identify factors influencing graduate satisfaction within a PBL nursing curriculum.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative focused ethnography utilizing semi-structured interviews (individual and group).
• Inductive constant comparison for theme and category identification.
• Comparative matrix analysis to define specific student experience profiles.

Main Results:

• Graduate satisfaction with PBL nursing programs varied significantly.
• Two core processes, "understanding" and "valuing" PBL, influenced satisfaction.
• Identified experience profiles: "Happy as fish in water" (understood and valued PBL), "I'll do it but I won't like it" (understood but didn't value PBL), and "I just want to be a nurse" (disliked and resisted PBL).

Conclusions:

• Differing "orientations to studying" (surface, deep, strategic learning) likely explain varied satisfaction levels in PBL.
• These orientations align with identified student experience profiles, explaining adaptation differences in PBL.
• Further research is needed to link study orientations to student satisfaction in nursing PBL programs.