Preparing work-ready nurses: reflexive learning for diverse students in the Australian vocational education and training sector

ABSTRACT

This paper highlights a disjuncture between training frameworks designed to meet work-based competencies, and educational flexibility desirable to prepare diverse learners for fluid workplaces and roles. We describe a pilot study that explored teaching and learning practices in a vocational education and training Diploma of Nursing program. The study used qualitative approaches framed by a social view of learning as a reflexive process. Frictions emerged in how teaching and learning was fostered and how knowledge and skills were contextualised through nursing-accredited training packages. A case is made to enhance critical thinking and reflexive approaches to prepare work-ready nurse graduates.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflexive learning
• critical thinking
• VET
• work-ready nurses
• nurse education
• competency-based training

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mary Ryan is a Professor and Head of the Department of Educational Studies at Macquarie University. Her research investigates discourses of literacy, learning, youth culture and teachers’ work. She applies theories of reflexivity, socio-spatiality and criticality to the ‘texts’ produced in classrooms, schools, higher education institutions and workplace learning.

Dr Karleen Gwinner is a Senior Research Assistant at Queensland University of Technology. Her work is at the nexus of art and health, bringing insight to issues that impact public mental health, child and youth development, and socio-cultural action.

Kerry Mallan is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She has published widely on texts and cultures of young people. Her current research concerns digital participation by regional communities in Australia.

Dr Cheryl Livock is a director of Integrity Education and Research, a boutique research company. Her past experience has been as a researcher, senior lecturer and teacher in schools and at TAFE Queensland Brisbane (TQB). Cheryl’s expertise is in Learning Support and Inclusive Education, Adult Education and Training and Training and Assessment.

ORCID

Cheryl Livock http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9269-6989