EDF

Table of Contents

Nursing as a profession is based on firm knowledge, values, clinical skills and attitudes (Zenani, Nombulele Esme, 2016). In the current dynamic health care systems, all nurses are challenged to be insightful and have robust clinical reasoning and psychomotor skills in order to integrate theory into practice (Azizeh, Mahnaz, khadijeh, Maryam, 2013 ). Therefore, they need to be accountable in ensuring that they perform optimally to meet the extensive demands of clinical settings. Theory-practice integration is a major element that sustains quality and drives best nursing practice (Elizabeth, & Lois, 2015). One of the barriers to theory- practice integration is the gap between theory and practice in nursing education. (Zenani, Nombulele Esme, 2016). Most of the nursing modules motivate students to take ownership of their learning, which means that students lead their progress of learning, educators play the role of facilitating, and provide guidance, support according to the needs of students (Saifan, 2015). The main aim is to develop these students to be critical thinker and problem solver (Siganga & Jeggels, 2014), the modules are believed to be able influenced them to achieve this goal and towards lifelong learning. Therefore, if sound theory is the basis for understanding the reality of the clinical setting, then every effort should be made to reduce the gap between theory and practice (Zenani, Nombulele Esme, 2016) The biggest challenge for most educators would be; how to bridge this theory practice gap in nursing education? In recent years, nursing education has been focusing on the theoretical education and the gap between theoretical and clinical education created (Gunay, & Gulsen, 2018). This gap has been observed in implication wise, students frequently struggled to see the connection of the holistic theorists with the practical world of nursing, the other dimension was theoretical development does not match with the clinical practice (Steivy, Tiwaken, Lawrence, Caranto, Juan, David, 2015). Many students feedback their clinical attachment had been experienced as high demanding and confusing process (Hatlevik, 2012), as these were created by the theory practice gap and would create tension in the nursing profession overtime. Many of them felt that in spite how good knowledge base the contained, it weren’t sufficiently skillful in clinical settings. As a result, the quality and confidence of students are being affected. (Steivy, Tiwaken, Lawrence, Caranto, Juan, David, 2015). As the reflection and feedback from students collected over passed years, clinical instructor had contributed very much with the improving of the students’ learning process. They tried to enhance students learning by creating a positive learning environment and participating as role models to support and alley students’ anxiety (Ryan, 2013) . Studies had showed there were improvement from these initiatives, however the theory practice gap is still exist and requires various influences to further closing this gap (Khairulnissa, & Salima, 2011). In this assay, it elaborates how clinical educator can make a valuable contribution to the students learning (Ly & Gate, 2015) by enhancing and creating a positive learning environment. It discusses what are factors causing the theory practice gap between academic and clinical? The available strategies to overcome this issue and how clinical educators can be liaison between the education and practice areas; involving themselves (Khairulnissa, & Salima, 2011) in revision of curriculum to bridge the gap? 2. Inquiry approach The approach taken for the literature review was first identified the strategies and boundaries to the literature search. This was followed by a brief history search of Theory Practice Gap in Nursing Education. This provided a resume of the development and understanding of the gap in nursing education (Joanne, Olson, Pauline, Gerri, Sandra, Barbaa, Rebecca, Nichole, Maram, & Winnifred, 2018) with a focus of the contemporary applications in education and clinical practice domain. Literature was then identified in relation to the use of theory taught in the academia and on the development of skills practice in the clinical environment. Literature was also been explored and sought on the relationship between theory and practice. The review of the literature was used selected key words and search terms using a range of electronic databases and search engines were accessed. These included; Nursing and Health Science literature by CINAHL, Medline, ProQuest, Google. As secondary data source were used in this assessment, I have to ensure not to lose the original meaning of the authors’ quotations to prevent any form of plagiarism. The literature search timeline boundaries were contained to the last 5 years to ensure there was primarily a contemporary view presented. I have also searched for literature outside this timeline reviewed because some of the information required were not able to obtained. There were evidences found in the literature regarding theory practice gap in nursing education, especially in the number of papers from Universities, colleges’ programs in various countries (Katz, Peifer & Armstrong, 2010). However, finding the evidence of the factors and solution for these gaps were not many and could not pursue in depth. The literature review was to generate and understanding of what is known about situations and identify problem in theory practice gap in nursing education. By reviewing various relevant studies, I would be able to clarify the causes of those gaps and how others have come out with solution to solve the problem.