Responsibility to Learn

Discussion board post for NURS624 Teaching in Health Disciplines, posted on May 19 2023. Post is in response to discussion about responsibilities of each party in nursing education.

That is an interesting question. To answer it, I started by looking at the College of Nurses of Ontario document on professional standards (2002), a created the following table of relevant highlights:

My takeaway from comparing the different roles of learner (nurse), regulator (administration), and teacher (educator) is that learning is an ongoing, co-operative exercise between the three bodies. Neither operates in isolation, and each has an interactive role in the learning process. To me, this reflects a progressive approach to learning in that it is meant to promote personal growth, not just the acquisition of specific skills or behaviors; however, this could be interpreted differently as the language often used by regulatory documentation is purposely general and vague.

Certainly, though, the learner (nurse) does have a responsibility for maintaining their competency as a nurse, and an accountability to ensuring their practice remains updated. However, the educator's role is to provide opportunities for this professional development and competency-building. If the educator is teaching from an essentialist approach, does that not leave gaps in the learner's development? Yes, it is the learner's responsibility to stay up to date, but what if the learner is unaware of the extent of the updates? The essentialist approach seems reductive and directive, which are not necessarily teaching strategies that are facilitative of ongoing personal growth.

References

College of Nurses of Ontario. (2002). Practice standards: Professional Standards, revised 2002 [PDF]. https://www.cno.org/globalassets/docs/prac/41006_profstds.pdf