Patrea Andersen

Unlocking reflective practice for nurses: innovations in working with master of nursing students in Hong Kong.

Being reflective is well established as an important conduit of practice development, a desirable tertiary graduate quality and a core competency of health professional membership. By assisting students to be more effective in their ability to reflect, they are better able to formulate strategies to manage issues experienced within a professional context, which ultimately assists them to be better service providers. However, some students are challenged by the practice of reflection and these challenges are even more notable for international students. This paper presents a teaching initiative that focused specifically on enhancing the capacity of an international cohort of nursing students, to engage in reflective practice. The initiative centered on an evaluation of a reflective practice core subject, which was taught in a Master of Nursing programme delivered in Hong Kong. A learning-centered framework was used to evaluate the subject and identify innovative strategies that would better assist international students to develop reflective practices. The outcomes of curriculum and teaching analysis and proposed changes and innovations in teaching practice to support international students are presented and discussed.

An animated model for facilitating understanding of Grounded Theory and the processes used to generate substantive theory

As a qualitative research method, Grounded Theory (GT) has had a significant impact on nursing research and has made a major contribution to the development of nursing knowledge. Despite this, conflicting opinions in the literature about methodological issues have contributed to the confusion about how this type of research is best conducted. The purpose of this paper is to present an animated model that illustrates and facilitates an understanding of how the various techniques inherent in the GT method converge to enable data categorisation and the formation of substantive theory. It will explain the key tenets of the research process underpinning GT and provides a guide for navigating the research process. It is hoped that this will facilitate understanding and promote the use of this methodology in nursing when it is appropriate to the research question being posed.