Prapring for career long learning

[CraigB-RN, MSN, RN]

Do your programs do anything to specifically prepare your students for life long learning and how do you do it?

As a hospital based clinical educator I find that many of my nurses have no idea of career long learning. They don't read, they don't know how to research, or how to figure out what they need to be studying. I've got the 1% over achievers, but the majority have no idea where to start. (this comes from needs assessments). This is one of the things I'm having to educate on. Not that I mind since that's what my dissertation is on. :)

[llg, PhD, RN]

Great topic, Craig! I work in Nursing Professional Development and think your topic is extremely important. I look forward to reading anything you might publish (here or elsewhere) in the future. I don't know if there is anything I can do to help you, but I'd be happy to help if I can -- or if you just need someone to listen to you vent.

Curious: You say that your dissertation "is" on life-long learning ... but yet you already have an EdD. Are you getting a 2nd doctorate or something?

Back on topic: A long time ago in the 1970's when I was an undergraduate at Duke, life-long learning was considered a cornerstone of our profession and curriculum. In fact, instead of doing a proscribed, clinical capstone like students do today we all had to design our own 3-credit independent study. We were told that its purpose was to teach us how to teach ourselves throughout our career. We had to assess our own needs and design our own learning experience. We had to set it up, execute our plan, and then evaluate our learning along with the whole experience. Most students chose to do some advanced clinical work in the specialty that interested them ... but the faculty was open to consider a wide variety of possible learning experiences.

Some examples:

1. I was interested in working in a NICU ... so I focused on newborn assessment ... reviewed assessment tools and developed my own comprehensive assessment tool ... and performed 8 newborn exams under the supervision of a preceptor.

2. I had a friend preparing for a maternity career who actually delivered a baby under the supervision of a midwife.

Overall, I thought that self-planned course was a great learning experience. We learned how to take of our own learning in the real world.

llg, PhD, RN-BC