Instructions:
Submission Instructions:
- formatted and cited in current APA style with support from at least 2 academic sources within 5 years.
- You should respond to your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts.
- All replies must be constructive and use literature where possible.
Learning Theories & Principles and Quality Health Care
Understanding learning theories, which make up the foundation of educational psychology, is critical for clinical personnel because it enables us to create learning environments, improve the effectiveness of the educational system, and comprehend particular learning theories in order to understand the patient and provide appropriate care. The development and testing of learning theories has substantially improved our understanding of how to identify individuals and changes in thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns. Furthermore, health professionals must exhibit consistent application of theories and clear reasoning in management, staff development, continuing education, and health promotion programs, especially given the current healthcare system (Aliakbari et al., 2015). In this regard, learning theories are critical for advanced nursing professionals who provide high-quality care to patients. I believe that cognitive and behaviorist ideas are crucial in advanced nursing practice.
Cognitive theory
Cognitive theory is widely used in education and therapy, and it is regarded to encompass a number of sub theories. This position holds that the individual’s cognition (perception, reasoning, memory, and methods of processing and organizing information) is critical to learning and evolution. Cognitive learning is a highly dynamic process that involves perceiving information, assessing it based on existing knowledge, and then restructuring the information to create new insights or understanding. The cognitive theory’s emphasis on recognizing and appreciating individuality and variability in how people learn and process events is extremely beneficial to health care. When used to health care, cognitive theory has been useful in establishing fitness programs for breast cancer patients (Themes, 2016). Advanced practice nurses will be more effective in providing care as they get more familiar with different situations. As a result, the cognitive development theory is important to contemporary nursing practice. Practitioners can also identify parallels, differences, and countermeasures for application in various medical situations (Jessee, 2018).
Behaviorism theory
Behaviorism theory is increasingly being used in educational and clinical psychology in combination with other learning theories, particularly cognitive theory (Themes, 2016). Behaviorism is a learning theory that emphasizes the quantitative qualities of traits and behaviors in order to facilitate learning (Landers et al., 2020). The behaviorist approach is clear and easy to implement, and it encourages unambiguous, objective study of observable environmental stimulus situations, learner reactions, and the effects of reinforcements on people’s activities (Themes, 2016). Because people cannot perceive their own thoughts, health providers are advised to employ visual qualities to better understand patients. According to the hypothesis, observing changes in the patient’s behavior can also be used to provide learning suggestions. Furthermore, the theory claims that circumstances play an important role in initiating behavioral change. The behaviorism hypothesis also requires ongoing change and change reinforcement (Landers et al., 2020). As a result, when caring for a variety of patients, advanced nurse practitioners are exposed to novel stimuli. It’s known as conditioned stimulation. The practitioner then formulates a reaction by comparing the situation to one they may have already encountered. This is referred to as a “conditioned reaction.” The application of behaviorism theory improves service delivery, resulting in high-quality healthcare.
Finally, as part of professional nursing practice, cognitive and behaviorist theories are commonly used in patient education. Learning theories are essential in advanced practice nursing because they improve the quality of care offered. The use of cognitive development theory to the field of APN nursing ensures that the professionals educated can learn and enhance their knowledge via independent efforts such as experience, hence improving the quality of care. The behaviorism theory can help the APN practitioner comprehend behavioral changes, use them to absorb new knowledge, and reinforce their responses to diverse situations. Advanced Practice Nurses can employ learning theories at the individual, group, and community levels to not only comprehend and teach new material and activities, but also to solve problems, break bad habits, create healthy relationships, control their emotions, and behave productively (Themes, 2016).
References
Aliakbari, F., Parvin, N., Heidari, M., & Haghani, F. (2015). Learning theories application in nursing education. Journal of Education and health promotion, 4, 2. https://doi.org/10.4103/2277-9531.151867
Jessee, M. A. (2018). Pursuing improvement in clinical reasoning: The integrated clinical education theory. Journal of Nursing Education, 57(1), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20180102-03Links to an external site.
Landers, M. G., O’Mahoney, M., & McCarthy, B. (2020). A theoretical framework to underpin clinical learning for undergraduate nursing students. Nursing Science Quarterly, 33(2), 159–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894318419898167Links to an external site.
Themes, U. (2016). Applying Learning Theories to Healthcare Practice. Nurse Key. https://nursekey.com/applying-learning-theories-to…
