Reflecting on Clinical Competence: Benner's Novice to Expert Framework

This essay delves into Patricia Benner's Novice to Expert theory, which outlines five stages of clinical competence: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. It highlights Benner's arguments on clinical judgment, emphasizing the influence of a nurse's competence level on their interpretation of situations, and the importance of reflection in advancing clinical knowledge and reasoning. The author identifies themselves as being at the competent stage, citing accrued experience, pattern recognition, effective practice, and the ability to think critically and base conclusions on evidence-based research. The essay references Benner's work on expertise in nursing practice and underscores the practical application of the theory in clinical settings.

RUNNING HEAD: CLINICAL COMPETENCE 1
Clinical competence
Student’s name
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Patricia Benner, a nurse and author from the United States is best known for her theory
from Novice to Expert. The theory outlines 5 stages of clinical competence which are; novice,
advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert (Oshvandi, Moghadam, Khatiban,
Cheraghi, Borzu, & Moradi, 2016). This theory has been developed and applied to various
clinical situations by various authors. Some of these works include “expertise in nursing
practice” book by Benner, Tanner and Chesla. The main arguments are drawn from Benner’s
theory as discussed below.
On clinical judgment, Benner, Benner, Tanner, & Chesla, (2009) argues that clinical
judgments depends more on the contribution that nurses have on a particular situation rather than
the objective reality of the situation. In other words, this means that, depending on the level of
competence, different nurses are able to draw different outcomes from a similar situation based
on how they approach a situation. The other major argument is about reflection on practice
where the author argues that reflection is important in the advancement of clinical based
knowledge as well as the advancement of clinical reasoning.
In the continuum, from novice to expert, I am at the competent stage in the work setting.
This is due to the experience that I have been able to accrue in my work setting. I have attained a
level of pattern recognition and I am able to work more effectively and competently due to
knowledge of nursing outcomes in my field. In addition, I am able to think creatively and
critically to make evidence based conclusion in the field of practice as well as base my
arguments on research.

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References
Benner, P., Benner, P. E., Tanner, C. A., & Chesla, C. A. (2009). Expertise in nursing practice:
Caring, clinical judgment, and ethics. Springer Publishing Company.
Oshvandi, K., Moghadam, A. S., Khatiban, M., Cheraghi, F., Borzu, R., & Moradi, Y. (2016).
On the application of novice to expert theory in nursing; a systematic review. Journal of
Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 9(4), 3014-3020.