First year learner nurses‘ perceptions on self-directed learning during clinical activities in the skills laboratory
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Date
2013
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
Self-directed learning (SDL) has become a focus in the past years due to the increase in the
complexity and changes in the nursing profession development. Employing SDL
methodologies has been advantageous to the learner nurses, since these methodologies are
associated with moderate improvement in the knowledge and effective improvement in the
affective and psychomotor domains. Despite the efforts to expose students to SDL, the
challenge remains the lack of students‘ commitment to SDL during clinical activities in the
skills laboratory. This lack of commitment may result from students‘ perceptions of SDL.
Therefore, this study seeks to explore and describe the perceptions of first year learner nurses
about self-directed learning activities in a skills laboratory at a school of nursing in the Western
Cape.
An exploratory descriptive quantitative design was used to answer the research question. All
the first year learner nurses (N=336) pursuing a 4-year Bachelor Nursing Degree served as the
target population and a sample of 168 respondents was selected by simple random sampling. A
self-administered 5-point Likert scale questionnaire with an additional four open-ended
questions was used to collect data for the study. Data was analysed by using the Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21 software. Descriptive statistics were used
to present frequencies, mean values, standard deviations, and the results were illustrated by
means of tables. The Spearman correlation coefficient indicated the correlations between the 4
The findings revealed that most of the respondents positively perceived self-directed learning
in the skills laboratory. However, it was also found that learners had challenges in relation to
time management during the implementation of self-directed learning.
Description
Magister Curationis - MCur
Keywords
Self-directed learning Independent practice Learner nurse Perceptions Skills laboratory Clinical activities Andragogy