Experiential Learning
UM-Flint RN to BSN Program
Experiential learning is also called practice experiences, clinical experiences, clinical learning opportunities, clinical strategies, and clinical activities. EL occurs in settings where health care is delivered or health is influenced that allow for and require the student to integrate new practice-related knowledge and skills. Activities include the necessary interaction with providers and/or patients that cannot be completed by the student in isolation.
Practice experiences, including those completed in the student’s work setting, shall include specific objectives, expected outcomes and competencies, and feedback provided by a faculty member and/or stakeholder of the agency in which the student is performing EL.
These expectations include the advancement of clinical reasoning and proficiency in performing psychomotor skills. Psychomotor skill development for the RN to BSN students must be differentiated from the expectations for the entry-level student. This should not be interpreted to mean the development of the skills already acquired in an associate degree or diploma nursing program but instead references the development of higher-level skills or proficiency. and include organization/systems understanding, leadership development, evidence-based practice application, information management and integration of technologies into practice, interprofessional collaboration and communication, clinical prevention and population health, and comprehensive assessment that encompasses all three domains of learning (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor), and quality improvement strategies.
EL experiences in the RN to BSN program involve a variety of activities that include direct care and indirect care experiences.
Operational Definitions
Direct care refers to nursing care activities provided between the nurse and the “actual patient” (AACN, 2024, p. 5) that are intended to achieve specific health goals or achieve selected health outcomes. Contexts include acute care (hospital or urgent care), long-term care, community-based areas, home health, hospice, and telehealth (AACN, 2024).
Indirect care refers to “nursing decisions, actions, or interventions that are provided through or on behalf of patients. These decisions or interventions create the conditions under which nursing care or self-care may occur” (AACN, 2024, p. 5)
Nursing practice includes direct and indirect care and nursing interventions that affect healthcare outcomes at any level of what is termed “patient” as above. Examples include the development and implementation of health policy, management of populations, and direct care of patients (AACN, 2024).
The patient is the receiver of healthcare at many levels, individual, family, community, or population. Healthcare comes in the form of prevention of disease, promotion of health, and maintenance of health. Illness and end-of-life care also are forms of healthcare (AACN, 2024).
Sound examples of post-licensure practice experiences are found in the AACN White Paper (2024) as linked below.