The influence of project-based Learning on nursing students' core competencies : a case study in China

Gong, Ran. 2017. The Influence of Project-based Learning on Nursing Students’ Core Competencies: A case study in China. Master's Thesis in Education. University of Jyväskylä. Department of Education. Vocational education provides students practical skills which will be beneficial for their future career. Project-based learning (PBL), as an instructional approach,was introduced into China’s vocational education in 2000. Seven core competencies were defined in Competency Inventory for Registered Nurse (CIRN) and are applied to monitor the standard of nurses. This study aims to reveal how PBL influences nursing students’ core competencies and to discuss the implementation and future improvement of it. In order to answer these research questions, this case study was conducted in one vocational college in China. Qualitative method was employed and the data was collected from six participants in this college by interviewing them. The data were both inductively and deductively analyzed. The findings show that nursing students have positive and negative impression of the implementation of PBL. The direction of how to improve PBL was categorized into two parts: teachers’ role and teaching environment. Five components from CIRN were found to be enhanced through PBL: critical thinking, clinical care, leadership, interpersonal relationship and ethical practice. This study provides a deeper understanding of PBL’s implementation from students’ voice and their views towards the influence of PBL on core competencies. Moreover, this study can contribute to better improve PBL in vocational education. Further researches such as a large scale quantitative study in this college or collecting data from other provinces are suggested to support the depth and generalization of the findings in the whole Chinese vocational education.