Reflection and learning in clinical nursing education mediated by ePortfolio

Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation into learning mediated by the elective elements of an electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) designed to facilitate four learning styles. The design takes a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach. The setting was Course 4, a ten-week clinical course in Basic Nursing. The participants were eleven first-year students on Course 4 randomly selected. Data were generated by participant observations, interviews and portfolio documents. The entire material was interpreted according to Ricoeur's theory of interpretation. The study showed that the elective elements of ePortfolio were mostly used by students with theorist style and used the least by students with pragmatist style. Some students can reflect without a learning tool, other students need supervision.  The themes a fellow player and an opponent were deduced. The conclusion was that the elective elements work like fellow players and opponents, as they facilitate reflections on nursing practice and one's own learning processes, and they mediate learning of important nursing competency elements. The tools can promote differentiation of supervision, and allow more time to supervise students who need more support.  There is potential to enable students to select among the learning tools.