Professional Experience Placement

Arhin and Cormier (2007) discuss how Gen Y nurses learn. They situate their discourse in post modern philosophy and use deconstructionism to advance their argument. The tenet of their paper is to demonstrate how nurse educators can enhance Gen Y learning opportunities. Arhin & Cormier (2007) note that Gen Y learners are response driven. They are generally more group oriented than previous generations of learners; have a higher tendency for being visual learners and through access to technology are more savvy. Additionally this generation are more accustomed to instant gratification, meaning they may have shorter attention spans and lower thresholds for boredom. They crave stimulation and expect immediate answers and feedback.

The ascribing of these attributes by the authors provides some guidance  for clinical supervisors. Supervisors may need to consider reorientating how they engage and facilitate this generation of students to meet the needs of a complex health care environment.

Some of the methods suggested by Arhin & Cormier (2007) included encouraging students to find information about the same topic from different sources so that they can construct meaning from different positions. The authors indicated that students learn to critically think by attaching meaning where concepts and information overlap in text.

When these students can identify with ‘I’, there is learning that can occur through self-identification with the topic.  This approach when combined with constructing relational thinking about content, can prepare students for interpreting situations in practice.  The authors suggest this this non-linear approach is important for cognitive development of “learning nursing thinking” and being able to synthesise information and make appropriate clinical decisions.

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