Learning Theories In Clinical Environment

Educational theory and learning

Question:

Discuss about the Educational Theory in Clinical Environment.

Educations which can also be called learning is described as a process where one acquires knowledge and start having different thoughts and feeling about the new skill and develop an attitude towards it. It helps individuals to respond well to demands in clinical environment, that is, if for the sick and their families, they will be able to understand ways of improving their health and follow the prescriptions from a medical practitioner. For the learning students in the field of medicine, they are able to get information and all skills required in the medical field.

Educational theory offers a different point of view on how learning takes place and what attracts people towards it (Emerson 2007). Learning theory is very crucial in education as it helps in creating a good environment for learning, improving education system and harmonizing it. It is also useful in psychology guidance. Medical professionals are therefore advised to use these theories often especially when dealing with the sick and other clients, during trainings and during other health programs. There are different types of learning theories which include behaviorism, cognitive, humanism, but in this paper, we will be discussing one of the theories, how learning theories is applied to clinical sector, principles to learning and ways that facilitate learning in clinical environment

This is a type of learning is believed to be a change in behavior which is visible and this happens when there is a communication and response (Siemens 2014). There are two types of behaviorism; methodological which describes psychology as a science which helps predict and control one’s behavior, (Slavin & Davis 2006) while radical behaviorism which says that behaviors are inborn and is determined by genes of a particular organism

This theory assumes that all change of behavior is achieved from the environment and that behavior is the final product of event response. Learning can be simple because by not considering what is happening in an individual’s mind, observation and responses can tell you there is behavior change and therefore the final behavior is achieved by continuous learning (Ormrod,2011). This has a great impact on learner’s responses which can be positive or negative. The transition of behavior is achieved through practice and much of these are based on respondent conditioning and operant conditioning.

Respondent conditioning deals with conditions of stimuli in that when a neutral stimulus is joined with a naturally occurring and unconditioned response, a new conditioned response occur and this happens without the knowledge of an individual. This creates a good clinical environment and improves the performance of the medical practitioners. This conditioning can also be used in eliminating a previously learned behavior, for example, fear/ anxiety or any other behavior and in this case psychologists have devised ways to help counter that by use of;

Behaviorism theory

Systematic desensitization is used by psychologists to minimize fear and anxiousness in patients/clients. This is done by teaching patients with anxiety or fear problems the need for relaxation. This technique is used in treating patients who are addicted to drugs.

Stimulus generalization whereby first experiences are used to apply to other events, therefore mixture of different events helps people to learn.

Spontaneous recovery is a technique used in respondent theory to help in dealing relapse cases whereby a person can go back to past habits when the current conditions seem alike with the past experiences

Operant conditioning looks into behavior of an organism and effects that occur after response. There are different responses in this operant conditioning; neutral which comes from the environment and does not cause a change in behavior, rein forcers which increase the change in behavior and punishers which decreases the chance of change of behavior. The main point of doing this is to observe individual reactions and find ways to use to change the behavior. The methods of reinforcement used can be positive or negative (Deci & Ryan 201); positive involve giving gifts to enhance action repetitions of a response.  A negative method involves removing unwanted events. Different patterns can be used to achieve these reinforcements and they are as follows;

Continuous method happens when behaviors occur in an individual or animal, fixed ration happens after occurrence of behavior for a specific number of times. Fixed interval happens when one thing is given priority to achieve one response, variable pattern whereby a behavior is determined after several trials. Variable interval pattern says that after one good behavior is achieved, the others can be tried at different unpredictable time. This theory has some disadvantages because it does not show all kinds of learning, does not explain some learning techniques.

Consequence role- behavior is strengthened by positive and exciting learning effects but it is weakened by unpleasant events. The positive events are called rein forcers while the negative ones are called punishers. Rein forcers are any events that strengthen behavior; it has two categories; primary and secondary.

Experiences –learning should acknowledge learners past events therefore educators should be able to guide the learners come out of past experiences and gain new skills (Hirsh, et.al 2007)

Result- this is the immediate consequences after behavior change and this includes shaping which is a new skills or behavior impacted on learners to achieve the best. Extinction is also a result of change in behavior whereby when learning stops, behavior change declines and almost disappear.

Respondent conditioning

Learning in adults needs practical performance of what is being taught so that there is good understanding which helps in behavior change (O’Connor 2015).

Maintenance- this involves close monitoring and continuation of learning in learners especially the slow learners and those with bad behaviors. Learning should cover every learner including the poor learners so that no one is left behind.

Antecedent’s role- events that follow behavior is important because they give a clear information whether the behavior change need reinforce or punishment. Educators should be able to do follow up in their students to allow better change.

Learning should have goals, it should be able to solve a problem; a learner should have something in mind which he/she wants to achieve, a teacher therefore should guide them in setting the goals. Learning is not easy for both young and adults, it needs motivation and the teacher should always guide them and to some point giving them real life scenarios so that they can understand.

Learning should have orientation, a sense of self direction and responsibility, a teacher is the one who understands the learners and for the concept to be understood, the teacher knows a way of passing that information to the students, teacher can engage the students in discussion groups to perform some tasks or discuss and share information about a certain idea and by so doing, the teacher will be able to know where to begin in guiding the students. Some ideas can be learned well the through the process.

Learning process should be practical; the teacher should take the students through the clinical needs through practical, visiting wards to check on patients, allowing them to do some things and not just seeing or being told about them, this will build their confidence in the area of clinical profession. For a learner to understand an idea there should be continuous learning and practicing (Hirsh, et.al 2007).

In learning process, there should be a show of respect to one another, learners should learn to appreciate one another and the ideas thy bring into the learning forum, by so doing it helps someone who might be having a problem or might have faced difficult experiences. In learning, somebody’s idea should build someone’s life hence need for that virtue.

It helps in psychology guidance by providing the required infrastructure. It should also be used by health professionals during interactions with patients/clients, in health programs. Nurses being the ones to launch and implement processes of training, they should embrace the approach of this learning theory for education to the patients (Emerson 2007).

Operant conditioning

Behaviorism theory applications influence learner’s reactions in that it can be positive or negative reaction. Bad response can lead to fear.

Can be used in treating psychology disorders, finding ways of improvement and changing behavior conflicts. Techniques of change of behavior are used in teaching learners about education and social behaviors in teaching environments.

Behavioral objectives are crucial in nursing especially when dealing with mental because it helps the educators in teaching and also in analyzing the performance of the learners as it forms the basic foundation in learning.

It has been used to find ways of dealing with chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, and using effective diet programs as per the theory and health procedures.

Following up correct diet during treatment is a hard task specially to aged adults; therefore, health professionals should always guide the patient on this so as to comply with the required food procedures.

Ways to facilitate learning. Learning in work place help in improving the spirit of learning in clinical environment as it offers great opportunities making learners acquire skills and knowledge in medical field (Bastable 2014).

Nursing is one of the essential parts in clinical environment and nurses play a very crucial part in the health sector. They are therefore required to be professionally and academically qualified to perform their duties well.th following methods help in facilitating learning of nurses in the clinical environment;

Setting participants and baseline assessments this involve training the nurses as they come in and depending on their qualifications and age so that they are not overtake by time.

Study design involves a procedure where individuals who have the same qualifications are tested on some ideas to determine their level of knowledge and skill on the question asked, the outcome will determine who needs further training than the other and by so doing improve learning.

Nurses need more knowledge on clinical teachings, skills about critical thinking and ways of communicating so as to deliver their work well and pass clear and legit information to the people they are dealing with. There is need for knowledge in communication so as to handle questions from the students well. There is need for learning in clinical environment to allow easy coaching of learners in the field too because they should be taught and assessed well so that they get the correct content as required in the medical field.

Incorporation of developed ideas of professional self has also created a room for learning of nurses (educators and learners) hence improving the relationship between others.

Facilitating learning in clinical environment

In as much as nurses need learning for the sake of coaching the learners, they should also get knowledge on how to handle their own fears and anxiety and also be able to handle students while training them.

Learning by participation is a way of improving learning of nurses in a medical field, learning as acquisition involves going back to class hence shortage of workers to attend to patients, but through participation it opens ways to learn while working.

Learning through talking has also improved learning in clinical environment in that learners should learn to talk for them to become experts in their field of medicine other than listening to a talk from experts. There are ways in which learning by talking has improved learning and it includes trainee talk, self-talking/thinking aloud, discussions.

Conclusion

In health education, research which was once done in psychology, nursing and medicine, is used in finding learning experiences from patients, clients, families and at the same time developing teaching and learning experiences to learning students and workers.

Despite many explanations of theories and principles in learning, each concept/theory has important direction in learning process. Educators in the clinical environment cannot be able to know everything at once but through learning on day- to- day basis. Psychology and nursing work hand in hand in hand psychology has helped much in health sector and nursing uses its principles, ideas and theories

Reference list

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EMERSON, RJ 2007, Nursing education in the clinical setting. St. Louis, Miss, Mosby, Elsevier.

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Hirsh, DA Ogur, B Thibault, GE and Cox, M 2007, " Continuity" as an Organizing Principle for Clinical Education Reform Medical Education. The New England journal of medicine, 356(8), p.858.

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Siemens, G 2014, Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age

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Young, LE & Paterson, BL 2006, Teaching nursing: developing a student-centered learning environment. Philadelphia, Penns, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins