<H4>ABSTRACT</H4> <P>This article presents some thoughts and ideas about a different way to organize clinical studies for nursing students. The model involved a large group (12 to 15) of third-year nursing students taking their 12-week clinical study period on the same acute geriatric hospital ward. Difficulties with finding enough clinical study venues, together with a belief in peer learning and situated learning as important for learning, were the main reasons for trying out a model with many students doing clinical studies on the same ward.</P> <P>The model has been used twice, and evaluations showed that students believed the clinical study period had given them the opportunity to develop their nursing competence. Most of the students experienced cooperation with other students as self-developing. Staff experienced this model as a positive influence on students&#146; professional development and as stimulating for the professionalism of the ward.</P> <H4>AUTHORS</H4> <P>Received: December 30, 2002</P> <P>Accepted: July 1, 2004</P> <P>Ms. Halse is Assistant Professor, Oslo University College, and at the time this article was written, Ms. Hage was a Nurse Researcher, Aker University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. Ms. Hage is currently a PhD student at Oslo University.</P> <P>Address correspondence to Kirsten Halse, CandNursSci, RN, Assistant Professor, Oslo University College, Faculty of Nursing, Pilestredet 52, N-0167 Oslo, Norway; e-mail: <A HREF="mailto:kirsten.halse@su.hio.no">kirsten.halse@su.hio.no</A>.</P>

Background: Health education has been regarded as an important aspect of nursing for years. To be able to provide health education, nursing students need to know about the content of health education programs and the pedagogical role of the nurse. Methods: For nursing students to acquire knowledge about the pedagogical role of the nurse, they carried out a learning assignment where they explored the pedagogical role of the nurse in the ward for one week of an eight-week clinical rotation. A study was then conducted to explore whether the learning assignment influenced the students' awareness of the nurse's pedagogical role. Twenty-three third-year bachelor of nursing students, 12 in 2007 and 11 in 2008, participated in focus group interviews. Results: The findings showed that the students became more aware of nurses' pedagogical role after the one week of exploring patient education with ward nurses. The students increased awareness was founded on their experiences, which were that the nurses seldom planned the health education and information given. Further that the nursing staff did not utilize planned educational materials for their patient education and that they seldom documented health education. Despite these finding, the patients were generally informed during caring interactions. Conclusions: A learning assignment related to the nurses' pedagogical role seemed to have increased the students' critical awareness of the nurse's pedagogical role and the legal demands related to the obligation of nurses to educate patients.

No abstract

S ykepleiernes undervisningsfunksjon er beskrevet i offisielle dokumenter (1,2), og avspeiles også i de krav som verdens helseorganisasjon stiller til sykepleiere (3). Pasientundervisning beskrives som tilrettelegging for laering hos pasienten og eventuelt hans pårørende, slik at han eller de får økt kunnskapsforståelse, samt bedre ferdigheter og mestringsmekanismer (4). Målet er at pasienten skal takle sin livssituasjon bedre.

Studentene laerte av erfarne sykepleiere gjennom intervju og observasjon. Les mer og finn litteraturhenvisninger på www.sykepleien.no