| Author: | Yeung, Man Yee Monly |
| Title: | The first-year enrolled nurse students’ learning to be autonomous and adaptable learners : an interpretative phenomenological analysis |
| Advisors: | Chan, Engle Angela (SN) |
| Degree: | DHSc |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Subject: | Nursing -- Study and teaching Learner autonomy Nursing students Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Health and Social Sciences |
| Pages: | xviii, 195 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Nursing education needs reform globally to bridge the gap between graduates' skills and industry demands. Learner autonomy can help minimize the gap and ensure better patient care. The need for change is crucial to training healthcare professionals who can meet the challenges of a rapidly changing healthcare landscape. The study aimed to understand the lived learning experiences of Hong Kong Chinese enrolled nurse students in the biological and life science (BLS) course under the teacher-peer-supportive-autonomy contexts and how these experiences shaped their subsequent learning pursuits and personal growth in other courses on their learning journey. The study had two objectives. The primary objective was to comprehend how enrolled nurse (EN) students make sense of their lived experiences through the BLS course during their first year of learning. The secondary objective was to give voice to the students' personal stories on how and what they were practicing learner autonomy to become autonomous and adaptable learners in other courses of their learning journeys. The interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach was used in conducting this qualitative study, which is well fit to be utilized in understanding one’s lived specific experience in a specific context. IPA acknowledges the role of researchers in meaning-making and recognizes that their interpretation of findings can be influenced by their own experiences and conceptions. Purposeful sampling and homogenous groups were used, and nine participants were recruited for this study according to the set eligibility criteria. The study was conducted in a safe meeting room via face-to-face/Zoom meeting at a local self-financing university. The participants’ interview preferences were discussed after obtaining ethical approval from my university and also an acceptance from the school dean of a local self-financing university. Following the data collection method, preparation for self-reflection exercise and one-on-one semi-structured interviews were exemplified. The research protocol used a seven-step guideline proposed by Smith et al. for conducting the IPA study to present the narrative stories of each participant’s personal lived experiences. The researcher followed a series of procedures, including immersing herself in the data by carefully reading and re-reading the transcripts, making exploratory notes, and clustering experiential statements. The texts were then divided into meanings, and nine personal experiential themes (PETs) were constructed. These themes were then mapped in large tables, creating a unique story and interpretation for each participant. The PETs were then clustered to create a complete picture of the experience, ultimately developing a group experiential theme (GET) and its 16 sub-themes across the cases. Through the research process and repeating the steps of the guideline, the researcher fulfilled the theoretical orientation of ideographic commitment and the double hermeneutic process for interpretation by employing a cross-case nuanced analysis. The study identified seven central master themes and their subthemes. The master themes include the dual values of students’ pursuit in nursing profession, feeling overwhelmed as shaped by perceived learning inadequacies, influencing aspects of students’ readiness in seeking help, discovering a “new me” in a co-creating environment, moving beyond the traditional teaching methods, taking charge of one’s learning and learning to become a life-long learner. This study sheds light on the implications of experiential autonomous learning for Hong Kong Chinese EN students. Through their personal stories, their affective and cognitive perceptions were interpreted to make a valuable witness and significance in practicing learner autonomy in a group of junior nursing students. This study identifies three specific areas of implications: The implications of innovative teaching practice on the transformation of learning, curriculum development, and the development of nurse educators. The study is the first of its kind to explore the growth and transformation of Hong Kong Chinese EN students who underwent experiential autonomous learning, and its findings offer a sound, insightful solution to minimize the expectation-practical-theory gap with the current nursing program curriculum. The study also articulated the benefits of cultivating learner autonomy in nursing education and other healthcare professionals. Overall, the findings of this study have significant implications for optimizing and improving the nursing educational curriculum as well as the quality of the educative experiences of EN nursing students. For educators, this study provided a fresh perspective on the humanistic training and teacher-peer-support autonomy of healthcare professionals in Hong Kong and beyond. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8007.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.53 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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