The structured practice approach: An innovation for clinical skills education

In nursing curricula, it is vital that undergraduate nursing students learn specialist clinical skills within simulated laboratory settings and understand their application to practice. Along with the physical clinical skill, students must develop their critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills to understand when and why certain skills would be utilised, and what outcomes are predicted. There are many ways to facilitate learning within this setting, but there is little clear instruction for the educator tasked with d emonstrating within simulated clinical environments. With this in mind, the Structured Practice Approach was developed, incorporating current teaching and learning practices and philosophies, with added targeted questioning to facilitate critical thinking and clinical reasoning. This approach clearly outlines teaching steps for a clinical skill. The approach was trialled at a regional university with positive anecdotal outcomes and feedback, highlighting the need for more formal analysis of the use and effectiveness of the Structured Practice Approach.