Teaching domains of clinical instruction from the experiences of preceptors.

Clinical teaching is vital to prepare nursing students for the role, build learning experiences, and ease transition. This study aimed at exploring the pedagogical principles that guide clinical educators in teaching undergraduate nursing students. The descriptive, qualitative, multiple-case study design, guided by the cognitive task analysis research, helped gain insights into how 18 nurse preceptors provided clinical instruction.

Rethinking clinical instruction through the zone of proximal development.

Background: The complexity of the learning environment and intricacy of nursing tasks make it difficult for students to learn without the assistance of an expert. Teaching in the zone of proximal development (ZPD) aims at positioning learners in the zone of what they can do and develop with assistance to reach full potential and independence. ZPD is deemed essential to understand how teaching and learning take place; however, its implications for clinical educators are limited and need further exploration.

Context-Based Pedagogy: A Framework From Experience.

Background: Attempts to transform teaching practice are inadvertently subjected to several hurdles, mostly attributed to the lack of a guiding framework. This study aimed at unraveling the conceptual underpinnings of the context-based pedagogy, being perceived the pedagogy that prepares professionals for future practice.

Method: Through focus group interviews, data were collected from 16 nursing students who had case studies as the main instructional format in three major courses.

Case-based learning: What traditional curricula fail to teach.

Background: Case-based learning seeks to contextualize learning and to enhance the transition of nurses to practice. This instructional approach is gaining widespread interest in nursing education since the unfolding process emulates the work environment. Case-based learning holds great promise to the development of professional skills.

Assessment and instruction to promote higher order thinking in nursing students.

Objectives: The dearth of data on the role of assessment in higher education formed the two purposes of this study: first, to explore assessment strategies commonly used in nursing education by analyzing the curriculum documents of three baccalaureate nursing programs in Lebanon against Bloom's Taxonomy of learning, and second to unravel issues of instruction and assessment by categorizing data into teacher- and learner-centered strategies.

Design: Content analysis research technique applied to analyze the curriculum documents of three baccalaureate nursing programs in Beirut, Lebanon.

Method: After obtaining IRB approval and consent to access the curriculum documents of the programs, data were analyzed using the content analysis research technique.

Clinical practice of new nurse graduates in Lebanon: challenges and perspectives through the eyes of preceptors.

New nurse graduates continue to experience difficulty balancing their preparation for practice with the expectations of the workplace. Few studies have explored the transition practices of nurse graduates through the challenges that they experience. This article presents the findings of a research study that explored the perceptions of preceptors regarding the clinical practice of nurse graduates using the qualitative multiple case study design.