Current issues with the identification of threshold concepts in nursing.

While there has been some growth in the body of literature on threshold concepts in health science disciplines, the nature of this discourse and which approaches have proved successful remains unclear. This paper illustrates one of the primary issues facing the development of threshold concepts in nursing education literature specifically - a lack of transparent and rigorous processes for their identification. The paper briefly examines the methods that have been utilised to identify threshold concepts in the nursing education literature, and what issues using these approaches raise.

Designing and implementing reflective practice programs--key principles and considerations.

This paper reports on an educational evaluation study that sought to identify key principles that could inform the design and implementation of undergraduate nursing reflection programs and thereby enhance the potential that nursing students will develop sound reflective practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nursing graduates to explore their perceptions of an undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing reflection subject and explicate the factors that could enhance the implementation of this subject. Subsequent validation and refinement of these factors was managed by correlating the factors with students' qualitative feedback, gathered through a formal subject evaluation of the undergraduate reflective practice subject.

Meaningful and engaging teaching techniques for student nurses: a literature review.

Helping undergraduate nursing students to contextualise theory learnt in the classroom to their professional practice can be challenging for nurse educators. This article provides a critical review of contemporary literature that explores strategies and techniques that nurse educators within university settings have adopted to address this challenge. This review was conducted as part of a broader research project that involved interviewing nurse educators to explore how they attempt to make their teaching meaningful and engaging for student nurses.