Fostering Person-Centered Care Among Nursing Students: Creative Pedagogical Approaches to Developing Personal Knowing

Abstract

Person-centered care (PCC) is grounded in principles of respect, autonomy, and empowerment and requires the development of interpersonal relationships. For nursing students to engage in PCC, they need to intentionally develop personal knowing, which is an essential attribute of therapeutic relationships. Developing personal knowing, as well as professional knowledge, positions students to enact PCC in their practice. Faculty members play a vital role in fostering the development of personal knowing by creating opportunities for students in which genuine and respectful dialogue, reflection, self-awareness, and critical thinking can take place. This article explores several creative approaches faculty have used to actualize these qualities in their teaching-learning encounters with nursing students at various stages of their students' professional development. These approaches offer experiential teaching-learning opportunities that foster the development of personal knowing, as well as constructive and respectful relationships between faculty and students, therefore laying the groundwork for PCC in practice settings.

Occupational Therapy Student Conceptions of Self-Reflection in Level II Fieldwork

“…Moreover, comparable to previous studies, participants also felt that self-reflection mostly had a positive impact on their clinical performance, specifically, problem solving, clinical reasoning, and confidence in skills (Andonian, 2013;Brown et al, 2016;Constantinou & Kuys, 2013). They saw self-reflection as an outlet for letting go of expectations and adopting new perspectives which allowed them to flourish in fieldwork and adopt a greater therapeutic use of self with clients and families (Schwind et al, 2014). However, a cautionary note was also evident in participant comments that indicated that self-reflection may be detrimental if it does not occur at optimal times or places (e.g., during a therapy session, distracting from being present in the immediate situation), or if the student focuses on negative rather than successful interactions.…”

“…Education scientists Boud, Keogh, and Walker (1985) defined self-reflection as "a deliberate affective activity in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new understanding and appreciation" (p.19), including recapturing the experience, thinking about it, mulling it over, and evaluating it. Currently, in health sciences professions, self-reflection is seen as mental processing with a purpose to review an experience of practice in order to develop greater emotional intelligence and an understanding of both the self and the situation so that future encounters with the situation are informed from previous encounters (Brown et al, 2016;Schwind et al, 2014;Stephens et al, 2012).…”

“…Health sciences programs are implementing more self-reflective practices in coursework everyday (Schwind et al, 2014), but is self-reflection actually creating autonomous, qualified, and self-directed professionals who can meet the challenges of today's healthcare climate? Research on the subject is insufficient in nursing, physical therapy, and medicine and conflicting evidence exists on whether self-reflection practices are effective in promoting academic and clinical success (Andonian, 2013;Brown et al, 2016;Embo et al, 2015;Mann et al, 2009;Mason, Vitkovitch, Lambert, & Jepson, 2014).…”

An evolutionary view of patient experience in primary care: A concept analysis

“…Morgan and Yoder identified interpersonal relationships that fostered individualized and holistic care as essential attributes of the person‐centered nurse. Schwind et al proposed undergraduate and graduate nursing students learn how to engage in interpersonal relationships through formal or experiential mechanisms to build person‐centered nursing competencies.…”

Attributes associated with person‐centered care competence among undergraduate nursing students

“…To successfully implement person‐centered care in various clinical settings, nurses are key contributors, responsible for providing 24‐hr direct care tailored to individual patient's needs, values, and situations through a high‐quality therapeutic relationship with the patient (McCormack, Karlsson, Dewing, & Lerdal, 2010). However, it is a challenge to prepare nursing students to be nurses who are able to provide high‐quality person‐centered care (Schwind et al, 2014). Although the importance of developing specific skills and abilities required for person‐centered care is well documented in the literature (McCormack & McCance, 2006; Schwind et al, 2014), few researchers have investigated person‐centered care competence among nursing students.…”