Formulation of teaching strategies for graduation internship based on the experiential learning styles of nursing undergraduates: a non-randomized controlled trial

PURPOSE: To formulate scientific and effective teaching strategies for the graduation internship of nursing undergraduates, in order to improve their holistic clinical competence. METHOD: A before-after self-controlled study with cluster sampling was performed on the 78 senior nursing undergraduates that underwent a graduation internship at the department. Students were required to fill in the Kolb’s Learning Style Questionnaire and Holistic Clinical Assessment Tool on the date of admission to assess their learning style characteristics and holistic clinical competence, according to which targeted teaching strategies for their graduation internship were formulated. When leaving the department, the students were required to fill in the Holistic Clinical Assessment Tool again to assess the changes in their learning skills after rotation. RESULTS: In terms of learning methods, nursing students scored 23.87 ± 6.11, 29.57 ± 5.03, 37.85 ± 6.87, and 28.73 ± 6.70 in Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation, and Active Experimentation, respectively. When the learning styles were ranked by composition ratio, 46 students (58.9%) were assimilators, 18 (23.1%) were convergers, 9 (11.5%) were divergers, and 5 (6.4%) were accommodators. The holistic clinical competence of students after rotation was significantly improved compared to before rotation (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Clinical teaching strategies for graduation internship that are formulated according to the experiential learning style of nursing undergraduates can effectively improve their learning skills and holistic clinical competence.