Concept maps and clinical care worksheets: student and faculty perspectives

Background

Nursing faculty must develop innovative strategies to foster pre-licensure student development of clinical judgment and improve practice readiness. Clinical care worksheets are traditionally long, linear assignments to help students identify various elements of patient care. Clinical concept map assignments help student identify relationships and prioritize care needs.

Methods

Comparison of clinical concept maps and clinical care worksheets was performed with pre-licensure nursing students in their first clinical course. Student and faculty perceptions on clinical judgment development, learning, time spent, and preference of assignment were evaluated.

Results

Both assignment types were beneficial to student learning but in different ways. Most students perceived that concept maps contained less busywork and were more helpful to improve learning, thus preferring this assignment. Students and faculty recognized the value of building base knowledge with clinical care worksheets followed by incorporation of clinical concept maps to connect the entire patient care picture and maximize learning.

Conclusions

We recommend using clinical care worksheets then advancing to clinical concept maps to help build clinical judgment and learning most efficiently and effectively.