Nursing education and learning: The Nurse Students personal approach to the clinical training has a significant impact on how learning is acquired

Background: Learning professional skills in the clinic is central to the acquisition of professional competences for future nurses. There are no clear vision of how learning takes place in the clinic and the question is how education in the clinic may lead to the professional skills that enable future nurses to take care for patients.
Design and setting: The project Learning in Practice was accomplished from 2011 to early 2013, in collaboration between educations of nursing and educational theory educations at UCC North Zealand. The results in this paper is related to the examination of the nurse education only. The examination is based on four non-participating observations, four participating observations and three focus group interviews, respectively, four students, four clinical supervisors and four teachers . The clinical context was local hospitals. The data were analyzed with a theoretical framework inspired by the reflexive sociology.
Results: The project points out that the key to learning often lies implicit and destined by the work place. The abilities and attitude of the student are a central tool into navigation at the context and access to learning possibilities. The direct contact with patients supports the development of professional competences. The supervisor has a distinct importance to the access into the community of practice and learning.
Conclusion: The training should have a greater focus on the individual student's experience and learning conditions. The direct contact between students and patients should be strengthened. The joint educational project between the educational institution and the clinic is unclear and should be developed.