The lived experience of learning psychomotor nursing skills

Psychomotor skills are an integral component of the knowledge, attitude, and skills of nursing education. Using van Manen's approach to phenomenology (1997; 2006), this project explored third year nursing students' "lived experiences" of learning psychomotor skills. The aim of the study was to reveal how "learning to care" might be embedded in the process of learning psychomotor skills, based on the assumption that "caring" is a present but elusive concept in the experience. Data provided some fresh understandings of nursing pedagogy. The students' memorable learning experiences revealed a learning anxiety arising from the knowledge that a person will be the recipient of their care. This anxiety is present in different ways in the skills lab and clinical setting. In addition, students' experiences revealed caring through empathy, relationships, advocacy, integrating, affecting patient outcomes, and professional behaviors. These themes resonate with Roach's theory (2002) of caring as a human mode of being.