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Nurses graduating with a bachelor's degree from Australian tertiary institutions are expected to have high-order communication skills, competent technical skills, and the ability to make decisions in the demanding and complex context of practice situations. How students learn these skills is not clearly understood. This is partly because the practical knowledge unique to the clinical area continues to elude translation to a language and framework acceptable to the academic community (Cody 1994). The concept of coaching may provide a framework to articulate how student nurses learn in the clinical setting.
COACHING DEFINED
In a study of clinical education at the University of Canberra (Grealish & Dexter 1994), coaching was identified as a critical teaching skill by expert clinical nurses teaching undergraduate students. The coach was described as someone who assists the student with personal progress in the clinical placement and provides a safe environment for learning. In the nursing literature, the idea of coaching was applied to nursing education as long as 20 years ago (Smoyak 1978).
Although coaching as an educational strategy has not been clearly described, it is well recognized as important to learning in the clinical area. Morton-Cooper and Palmer (1993) in a text on clinical nursing education, define coaching as "the interactive, interpersonal processes that involve the acquisition of appropriate skills, actions, and abilities that form the basis of professional practice" (p. 47). In this context, the coach is in a one-to-one relationship with the student.
COACHING STRATEGIES
Until recently in Australia, clinical nurses were responsible for the bulk of student nurse education. With the transfer of preregistration, nursing education to universities theoretical knowledge was learned from academic nurses and practical knowledge continued to be the domain of expert clinical nurses. Many aspects of a profession can only be learned through experience and close association with expert practitioners (Meerbeau, 1992).
Clinical nurses who teach nursing practice to undergraduate students are known as clinical teachers. The challenge confronting clinical teachers in Australia has two facets: (1) How to develop psychomotor skills in the student in a way that emphasizes at the same time the technical skill and the caring manner, and (2) Ensure the student understands the reasoning or theory behind the nursing activity.
Coaching strategies can be applied by clinical teachers...