Being and becoming a nurse: Toward an ontological and reflexive turn in first‐year nursing education

Abstract

In this paper, we call for an ontological and reflexive turn in first‐year nursing education. An ontological turn focuses on formation, the ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ of a nurse, and emphasizes the value of nursing knowledge. First‐year nursing students often possess romanticized ideals about being a nurse that devalues the knowledge and expertise of nurses. We posit a thoughtful ontological orientation within nursing education that shifts the emphasis toward becoming skillful nurses, with expertise grounded in nursing perspectives. A focus on formation includes discussions regarding ideologies, dominant perspectives, and reflexive explorations of students’ views of nursing juxtaposed with the realities of nursing practice. We propose ontologic reflexivity as an approach to consider what perspectives are prioritized (or not) within the nursing classroom. Within pedagogical dialogic spaces, ontologic reflexivity calls on educators to create opportunities for students to learn the value of nursing knowledge along with other forms of knowledge. We consider ways in which an ontological and reflexive turn within the first year of nursing education may contribute to the formation of nursing students who value nursing knowledge, are open‐minded to various forms of knowledge, and possess an intentional reflexive way of being.

Experiences of first year undergraduate nursing students using Instagram in their clinical practicum during COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

“…It would be of interest to investigate the role of applications such as Instagram as an educational tool for nurse students during their clinical practicum related to real clinical context helping them to remember theoretical aspects, guiding nursing students as to what to do and what to observe ( Kalyani et al, 2019 ), maintaining continuous interaction with clinical practice together with the tutor's accompaniment, ( Geraghty et al, 2021 ; Ross and Cross, 2019 ; Zhu et al, 2021 ), and reinforce the reflexive process during clinical practicums ( Campbell et al, 2018 ; Jenkins et al, 2021 ). The guiding questions of this study were: what is the nursing students' perspective of the use of Instagram as a learning tool?…”