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In clinical nursing courses, students are trained to identify the status of the target patients. The mastery of such ability and skills is very important since patients frequently need to be cared for immediately. In this pilot study, a repertory grid-oriented clinical mobile learning system is developed for a nursing training program. With the assistance of the mobile learning system, the nursing school students are able to learn in an authentic learning scenario, in which they can physically face the target patients, with the personal guidance and supplementary materials from the learning system to support them. To show the effectiveness of this innovative approach, an experiment has been conducted on the "respiratory system" unit of a nursing course. The experimental results show that the innovative approach is helpful to students in improving their learning achievements. Moreover, from the questionnaire surveys, it was found that most students showed favorable attitudes toward the usage of the mobile learning system and their participation in the training program.

The process of caring is central to nursing practice but it remains a poorly defined concept in nursing practice and education. A small number of studies of caring in the field of nursing have been undertaken, but these have tended to be more quantitative in nature. This paper describes a qualitative study designed to explore nurses' perceptions of the concept of caring. Kelly's (1955) personal construct theory and the repertory grid interview technique were used to elicit trained nurses' views about caring in relation to the practice of nursing. A strategic informant sample of 25 nurses was chosen. A total of 200 verbal descriptions (constructs) were generated from interviews, and these were analysed into similar content areas. Seven categories emerged from the analysis to provide a detailed description of caring. These include: a) personal qualities; b) clinical work style; c) interpersonal approach; d) level of motivation; e) concern for others; f) use of time; and g) attitudes. There were very few constructs related to physical aspects of care. The findings are offered as reflection of British nurses' perceptions of caring. Some possible applications of the results for nursing practice, education and research are considered.

Summary Background While it is true that understanding the attributes and unique distinction of the nursing faculty has been the subject of most of the studies, little is known about how the use of doodles can help surface the persona of the clinical instructors. Objective This study aims to capture the essence or the lebenswelt of the concept of “clinical instructor” from the lens of students’ doodles which have been considered as a powerful qualitative tool in articulating individual experiences. Method A total of 195 senior nursing students recruited from a comprehensive university in the Philippines were the subjects in this qualitative study. Data were gathered from self-generated illustrations and written explanations made by the subjects to identify their concept of effective and ineffective clinical instructors. Phenomenological reduction was observed through a repertory grid, where doodles drawn were listed, categorized and thematised to reveal the qualities of the clinical instructor. Conclusions The subjective nature of the findings, though not generalizable, has surfaced how doodling can be a potent tool in identifying collective interpretation of the essence of health professions construct such as the one under study. The doodles revealed that an effective clinical instructor (enlightening, engaging and embracing) is one who is able to facilitate the learning of the students as well as being able to establish a harmonious learning atmosphere for and with the students. On the other hand, an ineffective clinical instructor (detrimental, dangling, and disturbing) impedes students’ development in the clinical practice by causing conflict through their personal attitudes and their teaching strategies. This can have benefits for clinical instructors, to improve themselves and realize the impact of their attributes to the clinical learning of students.

This paper describes how the repertory grid technique was used to structure interviews with ward sisters and charge nurses to explore their perceptions about the nature of caring in nursing practice. Informants were also asked to assess themselves as carers. The interviews generated both qualitative and quantitative data and the findings which emerged were used to guide further qualitative interviews with nurses and patients in the next stage of the study.

This study sought to identify how a group of professional nurses viewed the notion of an 'interpersonally skilled person'. Using a modified repertory grid approach, we asked 21 professional nurses to elicit eight bi-polar constructs relating to an 'interpersonally skilled person'. A total of 168 constructs was produced and these were analysed into different content areas. In addition, respondents were asked to rate themselves against the set of constructs that they, themselves, had elicited. Three levels of findings are offered in this study: 1) the content of the constructs that were elicited 2) the distribution of the constructs within these content areas 3) the discrepancies that were found between self and ideal self elements The findings indicated that the nurses in this study tended to view the interpersonally skilled person more in terms of personal qualities than in terms of identifiable skills. They also tended to identify themselves as deficient in many of the qualities that they elicited. The study has implications for teaching interpersonal skills and these are discussed in this report.