BACKGROUNDWith increasing healthcare knowledge, nursing education faces the challenge of content saturation where overcrowded curricula create teaching and learning environments that are focused on memorization rather than on students learning to apply information in context1,2. In response, the faculty at a large mid-western university are delivering a student-centered concept-based curriculum (CBC) where nursing content is purposefully selected to emphasize critical thinking and knowledge application3. Conceptual teaching focuses on creating connections between students’ prior understanding and new knowledge4.

Some research has shown that student’s desires, perceptions, and understanding of learning may not be aligned with student-centered curricula which emphasizes self-directed learning5,6,7.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Aligning with the phenomenological purpose of this study, Wenger’s Social Theory of Learning positions learning as part of our fundamental human nature that reflects our abilities to know and to understand8.

Wenger proposes that learning cannot be designed, rather students negotiate a response to the design or curriculum, and that teaching provides students with resources and experiences to support identity formation. He offers the view that learning changes an individual’s ability to participate as social beings and negotiate meaning8.

PURPOSEThe purpose of this proposed study is to gain deeper understanding of what it means to learn the nursing profession in a CBC by studying students’ lived experiences.

By taking a broad approach to studying learning to be a nurse in a CBC as it is lived in the everyday, I aim to uncover what is significant to nursing students. I anticipate this approach will contribute to knowledge about learning in a CBC and student-centered environments.

A mode of inquiry that requires a reflective attitude, which is grounded inphilosophical thinking, to describe and interpret others’ experiences as they are livedwith the aim of illuminating meaning or arriving at a deeper understanding of what aphenomenon is and what it is like to experience it.

LITERATURE REVIEWThe purpose of the literature review was to question and reflect on findings to inform and make explicit my pre-understanding ofthe research phenomenon and the situated context9,12. An iterative and purposeful search strategy was used to select literature that added further depth or nuanced understanding.

Key Findings: Students’ Perceptions of Learning in Professional Practice Programs

• Central to students’ experiences is navigating the teaching-learning relationship as they accept responsibility for their learning and form expectations towards education programs 13,14.

• Students’ experiences of being socialized into a professional role is found to involve learning from experts, learning together as peers, and learning with others (i.e. patients)15..

• The development of a professional identity involves students transforming their professional image, their approach and understanding towards learning, and their learning objectives16, 17, 18.

• Students recognize that becoming a professional is not just about the acquisition of skills and knowledge but is a transformative experience that changes who they are as a person19.

Phenomenology of PracticeVan Manen created a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to research that extends phenomenology as a philosophy of being to a philosophy of professional practice: "…a phenomenology of practice aims to open up the possibilities for creating formative relations between being and acting, between who we are and how we act, between thoughtfulness and tact" 11 . Within this methodology, researchers open themselves to experiences as they are lived by becoming consciously aware of and holding their prior understanding at bay to rediscover a phenomenon as it gives itself and shows itself 9,10.

The aim with phenomenological inquiry is to balance the universal with the particular where the description is at once illustrating the individual's experience yet can also be related to what the experience is9,10.

DATA ANALYSISInformed by phenomenological reflective analysis, a systematic data analysis plan has been created that involves a back and forth play with texts to uncover and interpret themes9,10.

Integrated into this data analysis plan are the ontological structures, or existential modes of being, which together characterize being-in-the-world and human beings experiences of phenomenon9,10:

• Lived Space: the world where human beings are located and their feelings, perceptions, and experiences of this space

• Lived Things: the objects of this world• Lived Time: subjective feeling of times and our temporal way of being in the world• Lived Body: the physical human presence • Lived Self-other: interpersonal space that individuals shape and share with others

INTERVIEW APPROACHConversational style interviews will be used to explore with participants their lived experiences of learning the nursing profession9. Participants will be asked about their day-to-day experiences, eliciting detailed descriptions of how they experienced learning the nursing profession in a concept-based curriculum.

SIGNIFICANCEGaining a deeper understanding of what it means to learn the nursing profession will support educators in aligning the intentions of curricula with students’ perceptions and behaviors.

With phenomenological reflective analysis, the particular lived experiences of the participants are explored to gain a deeper

THE LIVED EXPERINCE AND PERCERPTIONS OF NURSING STUDENTS’ LEARNING IN A CONCEPT-BASED CURRICULUM: A PROPOSED STUDY

Josie D. Bolianatz, RN, MN Student and Wanda M. Chernomas, RN, PhD College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba

INTERVIEW GUIDEThe first interview will focus on exploring with participants narrative details of their experiences:

Ø Can you tell me about your decision to go into nursing? Ø Can you tell me about your experiences as a student in nursing education?

The second interview will focus on reflecting with participants the meaning they attribute to their experiences:

Ø Can you explain to me how if feels/felt being a nursing student?Ø Could you describe a positive/negative experience that occurred during your

education?Ø Could you describe a challenging/rewarding moment?Ø Could you describe a time you felt you were failing/succeeding?

HERMENEUTIC PHENOMENOLOGYA hermeneutic phenomenological research approach informs this study from its conceptualization to the study design and methods. Various scholars have influenced my understanding of hermeneutic phenomenology, particularly the work of Max van Manen9,10. I have come to understand hermeneutic phenomenology as:

METHODSPurposeful sampling will be used to recruit six-eight nursing students who are in the first term of their fourth or last year of the program.

Students will be recruited to participate in two conversational style interviews.

Data sources will include transcribed interviews, a reflective journal, and field notes.

Rigor will be approached through reflexivity and creating an audit trail that details how the meaning of learning was found from participants’ lived experiences.

REFERENCES11.van Manen, M. (2014). Meaning and method. In Phenomenology of Practice. (pp 69-70). New York: Routledge12. Boell, S. K., & Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2014). A hermeneutic approach for conducting literature reviews and literature searchers. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 34(12), 257-286. 13. Alvarez, L., & Moya, J. (2017). The student – nurse pedagogical relationship: a hermeneutic-phenomenological study. Texto & Contexto - Enfermagem, 26(2), 1–10. 14. Liljedahl, M., Boman, L., Fält, C., & Bolander Laksov, K. (2015). What students really learn: contrasting medical and nursing students’ experiences of the clinical learning environment. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 20(3), 765–779. 15. McLellan, L., Yardley, S., Norris, B., Bruin, A., Tully, M., & Dornan, T. (2015). Preparing to prescribe: how do clerkship students learn in the midst of complexity? Advances in Health Sciences Education, 20(5), 1339–1354. 16. Lindquist, I., Engardt, M., Garnham, L., Poland, F., & Richardson, B. (2006). Development pathways in learning to be a physiotherapist. Physiotherapy Research International, 11(3), 129–139. 17. Reutter, L., Field, P., Campbell, I., & Day, R. (1997). Socialization into nursing: nursing students as learners. The Journal of Nursing Education, 36(4), 149–155. 18. Lee, S., & Schallert, D. (2016). Becoming a teacher: coordinating past, present, and future selves with perspectival understandings about teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 56, 72–83. 19. Jordal, K., & Heggen, K. (2015). When life experience matters: a narrative exploration of students’ learning in nursing education. Nordic Psychology, 67(2), 104–116.

Images are inspired by Dr. Seusss’s narrative ability to express the experience of living life in his story Oh, the Places You’ll Go! ©1990Top left: www.redtreetimes.comCenter: www.sapergalleries.comBottom right: www.saatchiart.com

understanding of learning as a human phenomenon where the interpretive insights from this study can be insightful to educators from different programs9.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the University of Manitoba, College of Nursing, Endowment Fund, for supporting this presentation by providing funding for me to attend the International Institute of Qualitative Health Research Conference. I would also like to thank Dr. Diana McMillan and Dr. Thomas Falkenberger for their input and guidance as I carry out this study.

1. Giddens, J., & Brady, D. (2007). Rescuing nursing education from content saturation: the case for a concept-based curriculum. The Journal of Nursing Education, 46(2), 65–69. 2. Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., & Day, L. (2010). Educating Nurses: A Call For Radical Transformation (Vol. 15): John Wiley & Sons.3. Giddens, J., Caputi, L., & Rodgers, B. (2015). Mastering Concept-Based Teaching : A Guide for Nurse Educators . St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier/Mosby.4. Fletcher, K., Hicks, V., Johnson, R., Laverentz, D., Phillips, C., Pierce, L., … Gay, J. (2019). A concept analysis of conceptual learning: a guide for educators. The Journal of Nursing Education, 58(1), 7–15. 5. Ambrose, S., & Poklop, L. (2015). Do students really learn from experience? Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 47(1), 54–61. 6. Pangam, S., & Menezes, P. (2018). Do learning strategies have an impact on academic performance in nursing undergraduates? Asian Journal of Nursing Education and Research, 8(1), 127–130. 7. Zusho, A. (2017). Toward an integrated model of student learning in the college classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 29(2), 301–324. 8. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.9. van Manen, M. (1997). Researching Lived Experience 2nd Edition. New York, NY: The Althouse Press. 10.van Manen, M. (2014). Phenomenology of Practice. New York: Routledge