Concept and Justification for Lifelong Learning | Essay

PROFESSIONAL
NURSING
STUDENT DETAILS

NURSING 1
Lifelong learning has been recognized as a fundamental necessity for all the people
who belong to the nursing profession (Fletcher, 2016). Lifelong learning is defined as the
active process which incorporates that nurses should search and understand aspects of the
medical conditions on a timely basis. The concept of lifelong learning defines that students or
nurses or every healthcare associate should always urge for the knowledge even after
accomplishing degree in their prescribed subject. The reason behind arousing this concept is
that in the medical science procedure of the treatment, diseases, new methods for treating
cells, viruses, etc always evaluate as per the time, thus knowledge of the healthcare
professional should also be updated with the time. For example: recently Corona Virus has
developed in the China and the healthcare profession at the global level is expressing their
concerns for the same. In this essay, there will be a discussion about the concept and
justification of lifelong learning, barriers and strategies for lifelong learning. Apart from this,
the professional portfolio will be made for the same.
Concept and justification for lifelong learning
The concept of lifelong learning in nursing practices is the ongoing and self-motivated
concept that incorporates the pursuit or passion for gaining knowledge for personal as well as
for professional development in an effective and efficient way possible. In the health care
industry, the concept of lifelong learning is always preferable because of the fundamental
reason that medical professional doctors and nurses should sharp their knowledge because
this will help them to provide effective treatment to their patients (Hicks & Patterson, 2017).
Moreover, lifelong learning not only includes gaining knowledge through books or journals
or in a theoretical way but when a healthcare professional learns something from a practical
way then also it is counted under the category of lifelong learning. Apart from this, there is
various justification for lifelong learning such as it skills up the professional development and

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it helps the professionals to function according to the latest treatment methodology (Hicks &
Patterson, 2017).
Moreover, the concept of the lifelong journey operates and resultant in positive
outcomes when the healthcare professional has an urge to learn more within themselves. This
urge or passion to learning more and incorporates new things to deal with difficult medical
intervention helps the healthcare professional to learn rapidly than those healthcare
professionals who do not have the urge to learn more after achieving a certain degree or after
cracking a specific examination (Mi & Riley-Doucet, 2016). Many researchers also give
justification that the concept of lifelong learning in the nursing practice is also held
importance from the economic perspective because having proper and advance healthcare
facilities in the country is counted as the sign of growth for the country. Thus, it can be said
that lifelong learning is also held special significance from the economic perspective.
Moreover, another justification for lifelong learning is that healthcare professionals
sometimes misunderstood this concept. For example: a doctor or surgeon utilizing the same
method with same medication from past 10years for treating a specific disease, according to
that doctor this is also called as life-long learning but according to the concept of lifelong
learning, it involves the learning of new techniques and methods neither just pursing old
techniques and methods to treat a specific disease (Ito, Hattori, Kakeda & Hayashi, 2017).
According to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), the concept of
lifelong is an essential conceptual shift from the notion to the constant change and
incorporating new methods. Another justification made by the NMBA is that lifelong
learning in nursing practices includes the learning of healthcare practitioners into different
contexts (Örs & Kilinç, 2017). These contexts not only include learning from the books or
modules but it also incorporates learning from the practical operations session, advancing
technology in the healthcare industry, etc. According to the various authors, the guidelines