Students' Perspectives on Learning Practical Nursing Skills: A Focus Group Study in Norway

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Practice
• Skill Acquisition

Background:

• Practical nursing skills are complex, integrating technical, theoretical, and caring aspects.
• Healthcare trends necessitate adapting nursing education to evolving practice settings.
• There's a need to understand student perspectives on learning practical nursing skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore nursing students' perspectives on practical nursing skills.
• To identify how students best learn these essential skills.
• To inform curriculum development for undergraduate nursing programs.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study using three focus group interviews.
• Participants included registered nurse and intellectual disability nurse students (n=11).
• Conventional, inductive content analysis was employed.

Main Results:

• Practical skills involve human-to-human relations, organizational competence, and technical mastery.
• Students emphasized the need for supervision and structured learning situations.
• Perceived relevance of skills varied between academic learning and clinical practice.

Conclusions:

• Nursing skills extend beyond technical proficiency to include relational and organizational competencies.
• Supervision and contextually relevant learning experiences are crucial for skill development.
• Curricula require review to better align practical nursing skills education with clinical practice needs.