Implications of understanding the undergraduate nursing students' learning styles: A discussion paper

The article aims to present and critique the literature exploring nursing students' learning styles and to discuss the implications of understanding nursing students' learning styles for nurse educators, nursing students, and nursing academic programs. Learning style refers to the way an individual prefers to learn. Learning styles are shaped by several factors and change with different contexts. The learning styles vary among students in nursing programs and other health professions, with no one dominant style. Despite inconsistent evidence, educators believe that matching their teaching methods with students' learning styles can promote academic performance. The authors share a teaching experience that incorporates offering several teaching methods for the same content to meet the different learning styles of nursing students. The teaching experience resulted in students' satisfaction and improvement in their performance. The paper proposes assisting nursing students to develop their learning styles to enable them to master the skillset required by nursing as a profession. These nursing students are future nurses who would have developed the necessary learning style and skills to provide safe and competent nursing care.