Viewing an old issue through a new lens: a critical theory insight into the education-practice gap

Baccalaureate Program Evaluation, Preceptors, And Closing The Theory-Practice Gap: Is There A Connection?

“…When it comes to deciding what nursing students will be taught, education seems to hold most of the power (Duffy & Scott, 1998), even though many nursing faculty struggle to maintain clinical currency (Rochester, Waters, Rogan, & Wylie, 2006). Scheller (2008) reports that only 52% of nurse academics in Illinois believed that academics should have clinical nursing practice as part of their academic role.…”

Preceptorship: Exploring the experiences of final year student nurses in acute hospital setting.

“…Existing nurse education is now based on holistic care and educating patients whereas traditional nursing has been based on a curative model [28] . This can potentially create a divide between practicing nurses and students, whereby students may feel disempowered [29] due to the dichotomy between the expectations of the HEI in terms of their training and the practice on the ground. Evidently the role of the preceptor is important in the education of student nurses, but the adhoc nature of preceptor training in Ireland and the complexities surrounding preceptorship means that it warrants further investigation.…”

“…This is quite a range of skills to call upon and given their complexity lack of a coherent national framework and implementation of training for preceptors in Ireland is clearly problematic. It undoubtedly has an impact on the types of support the preceptor is enabled to offer because lack of effective training and knowledge for preceptors can conversely hinder student learning [29] . Even for those preceptors who are actually willing and open to teaching students; lack of expertise in pedagogy and evaluation is a stressor for them and can conversely create an inability to guide students especially when a student is not progressing well [41] .…”

Assessment of graduates and diplomates in practice in the UK – are we measuring the same level of competence?

“…The literature abounds in relation to the need to integrate theory and practice in such a practice discipline as nursing (Cook, 1991; Davies, 1991; McCaugherty, 1992; Bergman, 1997; ENB, 1997; Duffy & Scott, 1998; UKCC, 1999). Indeed, the English National Board for Nursing Midwifery & Health Visiting (1996) stipulates the need to ‘develop critical enquiry and an analytical approach to the practice of nursing’ (ENB, 1996, 3.69).…”