Nurse Educator Dr. Patricia Benner Visits USF College of Nursing

Leading nurse educator and nursing theorist Dr. Patricia Benner, RN, PhD, FAAN, FRCN presented a “radical transformation” in how nursing is taught in the classroom during her visit at the USF College of Nursing.

Dr. Benner’s visit featured a distinguished lecture where she shared an innovative vision for nursing education and talked about filling the gaps between classroom and clinical education.

“Dr. Patricia Benner is an icon for the nursing profession and highly respected by the global healthcare community for her stellar expertise in educating nurses,” said Dr. Victoria Rich, PhD, RN, FAAN, College of Nursing Dean and Senior Associate Vice President of USF Health.

Dr. Benner’s lecture, titled “Educating Nurses: The Four Primary Shifts,” highlighted the findings of a national nursing education study which she led through the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2005. It was the first such study in 40 years and focused on programs that prepare registered nurses.

The study’s findings are detailed in the groundbreaking book “Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation,” co-authored by Dr. Benner.

In her book, Dr. Benner suggests the four main nursing education shifts include: teaching for a sense of salience, integrating classroom and clinical teaching, emphasizing clinical reasoning and multiple ways of thinking, and shifting from socialization to formation.

 “I think the biggest surprise out of the study was how distant the classroom had become from the clinical,” Dr. Benner said. “Classroom teaching is far too unrelated to their clinical practice. They don’t have clinical implications or clinical context presented in the classroom. I will talk about how to bring the clinical into the classroom and really integrating the clinical.”

Dr. Benner’s visit also included roundtable discussions on topics such as, “Connecting Classroom & Clinical through Teaching & Learning,” “Teaching & Learning in Clinical Situations,” and “Modeling Ethical Comportment.”

Dr. Benner is a professor emerita at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing, author of “From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Nursing Practice,” and Chief Faculty Development Officer for EducatingNurses.com.

Story by Elizabeth L. Brown, USF College of Nursing