clinical learning culture in health facilities: ideas from the literature, International

A framework to guide the creation of a culture that encourages continuous clinical learning in health facilities Background: Internationally, there is an increase in demand to educate nurses within the clinical practice environment. Clinical practice settings that encourage teaching and learning during episodes of care delivery can be powerful in educating both the existing nursing workforce and nursing students. Aim: This paper presents a framework, informed by the literature, that identifies the key factors that are needed to encourage the interactions fundamental to learning in clinical practice. Key concepts: Learning occurs when nurses demonstrate good practice, share their knowledge through conversations and discussions, and also provide feedback to learners, such as students and novices. These types of interactions occur when positive leadership practices encourage trust and openness between staff; when the management team provides sessions for staff to learn how to interact with learners; and also when partnerships provide support and guidance around learning in the workplace. Application of concepts: This framework presents how the concepts of leadership, management and partnership, interact to create and sustain learning environments. The feedback from proposed measurement tools can provide valuable information about positive and negative aspects of these concepts in the clinical learning environment. Analysis of the subscales can assist in identifying appropriate recommended strategies, outlined in the framework to guide nurses in improving the recognised deficits in the relationship between the concepts. Conclusion: Diagnostic measurement tools can provide specific information that can assist in identifying the weakest link in the interactions around leadership, management and partnership when creating and sustaining positive learning environments