Applying Social Learning Theory in Nursing

This assignment examines the principles of social learning theory and their relevance to nurse education. The author, acting as a junior-level nursing educator, outlines how they would utilize the four phases of social learning (attentional, retention, reproduction, and motivation) to effectively teach clinical nursing skills to learners. The assignment draws upon relevant sources like Bastable (2003) and Billings & Halstead (2015) to support their approach.

Running head: NURSE EDUCATOR TEACHING
Nurse Educator Teaching
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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NURSE EDUCATOR TEACHING
According to the Early Social Learning Theory, the majority of the effective learning
occurs via observing people, then subsequently discerning what is happening to them. This
concept is extremely significant in clinical nursing course (Bastable, 2003). During the course
of social learning process of nursing, the nursing educator or the senior registered nurse
provides compelling examples or act as the role model to the nurses at the junior level course.
The concept of social learning is based on concept of self-regulation, self-control and
behaviorist principle that the individual exerts during the process of learning. All these
approaches are critical and essential for the cognitive development of the learner (Billings &
Halstead, 2015).
(Source: Bastable, 2003)
Based on the Social Learning Theory, as proposed by Bandura (1977), I as the junior
level nursing educator will try to follow the four outlined steps of the theory. The first step is
attentional phase. Attention is crucial in clinical nursing and extremely important for any
learning to occur. Second phase is retention phase and involves storage, retrieval of what is

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NURSE EDUCATOR TEACHING
being observed (Bastable, 2003). It will use this stage, as a phase recapitalization of clinical
skills taught. This recapitalization can be done via interactive session, tests or via asking to
react during live examples. The third step is reproduction phase (Bastable, 2003). Here I will
examine that whether the junior level clinical nursing learner is capable to coping or
reflecting the behavior displayed in the clinical learning class. In this third step, I would like
to highlight on the aspects like mental rehearsal, corrective feedback and immediate
enactment in order to strengthen the reproductive behavior. Forth and the last stage is
motivation. I think, this is the most crucial phase for the beginners level as it helps in
ascertaining whether the learner is motivated enough to perform certain type of behavior
(Billings & Halstead, 2015). In motivation phase, I will try to keep the learners motivated via
making them understand the important and noble aspect of nursing and healthcare.

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NURSE EDUCATOR TEACHING
References
Bastable, S. B. (2003). Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning for nursing
practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Billings, D. M., & Halstead, J. A. (2015). Teaching in Nursing-E-Book: A Guide for Faculty.
Elsevier Health Sciences.