Child and adolescent psychiatric nursing and the ‘plastic man’: Reflections on the implementation of change drawing insights from Lewin’s theory of planned change

Abstract

Child and adolescent psychiatric nursing (CAPN) as a discipline has been remarkably slow in the uptake of high fidelity human patient simulation (HFHPS) as an education tool. Assuming HFHPS has potential use, and the issue is one of change management, this paper speculates about how Lewin’s paradigm for Planned Change might provide guidance to the specialty discipline of CAPN in development of strategies to promote adoption of HFHPS to education of pre-registration nurses. Kurt Lewin (1890–1947) was a seminal theorist of change, whose pioneering work has had significant impact across many disciplines. His theory of Planned Change has four components – field theory, group dynamics, action research and the three-step model of change. Each component is considered briefly and then combined within an example of application.

Keywords:

• simulation
• nursing education
• child and adolescent psychiatric nursing
• Lewin’s theory of planned change