A care improvement program acting as a powerful learning environment to support nursing students learning...

Area of Science:

• Healthcare education
• Nursing
• Change management

Background:

• Effective change management in healthcare necessitates strong facilitation skills among teams.
• Developing these facilitation skills in undergraduate nursing students requires structured educational support.
• A Dutch Regional Care Improvement Program was implemented to foster these essential competencies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail the components of the Dutch Regional Care Improvement Program.
• To describe nursing students' experiences in developing facilitation skills within this program.
• To identify potential refinements for the learning environment.

Main Methods:

• A Powerful Learning Environment model incorporating self-regulated learning, problem-based learning, and realistic tasks.
• Operationalization of facilitation into five key areas: awareness, leadership, communication, context, and evaluation.
• 42 nursing students participated in nine improvement teams over 18 months, guided by lecturer-coaches.

Main Results:

• Students engaged in activities across all five facilitation areas.
• Student experiences provided insights for program refinement.
• The program aimed to strengthen the learning environment for developing facilitation competencies.

Conclusions:

• The Dutch Regional Care Improvement Program offers a structured approach to developing nursing students' facilitation skills.
• Student feedback is crucial for refining Powerful Learning Environments in healthcare education.
• Further empirical research is needed to validate the impact of such learning environments on facilitation competencies.