Learner-Centered Clinical Growth

In the current ANS featured article, author Jessica Barkimer, MSN, RN, CNE illustrates the value of evolutionary concept analysis to understand a dynamic, changing phenomena – clinical growth.  The article, titled “Clinical Growth: An Evolutionary Concept Analysis” is available at no charge while it is featured on the ANS website!  Here is Ms. Barkimer’s description of her work that led to this article:

As an educator who teaches nursing students in various clinical learning environments, I embrace the student-centered approach.  Each student brings forth unique previous experiences that contribute to his or her own construction of knowledge.  Years ago, while working on my degree, Masters of Science in Nursing Education, I encountered students who were functioning at various levels in the same cohort of students.  Learning objectives

Jessica Barkimer

often guide educators, however, in an attempt to facilitate the learning of each student, I often wondered, “how can an educator determine if a student demonstrates an appropriate amount of growth to progress to the next level?”  This multifaceted topic requires examination to benefit nurse educators, students, and patients.  Currently, I am working towards my PhD in nursing and have had the opportunity to work with faculty at Marquette University who have helped guide me in this process of knowledge discovery.

This article presents the findings of the conceptual analysis of clinical growth, using Rodger’s evolutionary method.  These findings represent a holistic approach, focusing on cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of each learner, requiring growth in all three areas.  This concept analysis and model lay the foundational groundwork for examining relationships among the antecedents, attributes, and consequences, which are essential for a nurse educator to understand and implement in practice, moving nursing education forward.  This examination of the literature also allowed me to consider various instruments designed to capture the aspects of clinical growth.  I look forward to continuing my research in this area.