RELATING THEORETICAL AND CLINICAL CONTENT IN NURSING: A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 404
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study was conducted to explore the manner in which faculty members verbally and non-verbally structure clinical laboratory experiences in order to make overt the relationships between theory and practice. Student clinical assignments, written assignments, and verbal interaction were examined in relationship to this research problem.

One baccalaureate faculty member and her junior-level clinical group were the primary participants in this study. Other participants included senior students who rotated through the clinical group for their "leadership and management" rotation.

An unstructured means of data collection was employed. All components of ten clinical laboratory experiences were observed, and the instructor and senior students were interviewed. Data were collected by use of a tape recorder and supplemental notes, and analyzed by identifying categories and linkages within the data. Findings of this study were reported descriptively.

Findings revealed that student clinical assignments did not always facilitate the transfer of learning of theoretical course content. Contextual factors, as well as the structural process utilized in making student clinical assignments, contributed to the lack of an optimal relationship between these variables.

Independent study and written assignments assisted the students to apply theory to practice and to prepare for their clinical assignments. The instructor dealt with the disparity between theoretical course content and student clinical assignments in the pediatric setting by focusing these experiences on the informal clinical curriculum topic of growth and development.

"Verbal structuring" was often responsible for initiating and facilitating the overt oral consideration of theory related to practice by students during conferences, and functionally stressed certain relationships between theoretical knowledge and clinical assignments. Written assignments and/or oral discussion were consistently utilized to verify students' knowledge and understanding of certain relationships between theoretical knowledge and the clinical assignments, but were not utilized to verify other relationships.

The instructor made a differential distinction between her role in helping students orally relate theory to practice and the components of the clinical day. This role differentiation was reflected in her teaching practices. Senior students often assumed the role of "surrogate instructors" to the junior students.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-04, Section: B, page: 1117.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1985.

School code: 0055.