Abstract

Occupational therapy and nursing students' impressions of structured and discovery based teaching approaches to delivering breakaway skills as part of their pre-registration training

Author(s): Ian Merrick, Niamh Gilligan

Breakaway training has recently been introduced at a London university for nursing and occupational therapy (OT) pre-registration students as part of their preparation for clinical practice placements. Nursing students were taught these skills using a discovery learning approach whilst OT students were taught using a structured four stage teaching model. Students from both disciplines were invited to provide their impressions of the different styles of teaching with a view to establishing whether one or other might be more effective. It was found that OT students preferred the structured four-stage model and that most nursing students did not feel confident with discovery learning as the means of learning the skills. Nursing students, will in future, be taught breakaway skills using the four-stage teaching model.