Teacher competences required for developing reflection skills of nursing students

AIM: This paper is a report of a study in senior secondary vocational education designed to develop a framework for teacher competences to support nursing students in developing their reflection skills.

BACKGROUND: For healthcare-related professions such as nursing, there is a growing attention for developing reflection skills. Little is known about teacher competences required to support the development of reflection skills in nursing students. Developing a framework of teacher competences can contribute to filling up this gap. These competences are described in 91 indicators distributed over six task domains.

METHODS: A Delphi study was conducted in the first half year of 2008 to get consensus on a framework of teacher competences required for creating the learning environment needed for developing reflection skills in nursing students. Experts judged teacher competences on a seven-point Likert-type scale.

FINDINGS: In the first round, mean scores on the teacher competences were already high. Minor revisions were needed. In the second round, mean scores increased, whereas standard deviations decreased in round 2 compared with round 1. These changes were statistically significant. Coaching was seen as most important task domain.

CONCLUSION: Consensus has been reached on teacher competences to be used in nursing education to develop students' reflection skills. The framework of competences may be a source for curriculum development concerning reflection skills and for teacher training programmes to coach nursing students' reflections.