Existing evidence points to the successful application of the adult learning theory in training adult learners in clinical settings. Curran (2014) reviewed existing literature on learner-centered teaching styles and found out that the application of adult learning theory promotes the engagement of learners, their learning outcomes, and the transferability of the lessons to diverse practice settings. Allen et al. (2021), from their review of leader development programs, argued that the professional training curricula adopted in medical education – as well as in the military – successfully apply the elements of the adult learning theory to impart knowledge and skills to the students. The evidence from their research supports the use of specific orientations of the theory in educating learners on specific topics. Mukhalalati and Taylor (2019) further provided support for the adoption of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle in providing health education.
The major diversity issue in the clinical practice setting is the differences in age among the new nurses targeted by the intervention. A recent trend observed at the facility is that many of the newly recruited nurses from Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree programs are also advanced in age. Smiley et al. (2021), reporting on a nursing workforce survey, presented the findings that the median age of Registered Nurses (RNs) is 52 years. The report also projected that the aging of the nursing workforce will be a continual trend beyond the year 2020 (Smiley et al., 2021). The implication is that the majority of established practicing RNs are older than 50 years, and even though new hires are entering the profession, their age does not greatly reduce the median value. At the facility, the nurses joining the workforce are generally of a wide age range, including individuals between 22 and 46 years old.
The age of the learners is an important diversity factor because the cognitive abilities of individuals usually decline with age. According to Clark et al. (2015), older adults have slower reaction times and lower accuracy when performing new skills, which can play a role in the acquisition of activity-oriented skills. Janacsek et al. (2012), on the other hand, found that the implicit learning abilities, which are responsible for the acquisition of motor, cognitive, and social skills, are more pronounced in younger individuals, with the ability to acquire the implicit skills peaking during adolescence and declining as the years progress. Consequently, age becomes an important factor when teaching work-life balance, which is a social skill. It is also worth noting that the older students have more experience in striking a balance between various demands of life and could benefit more from experiential training than their younger colleagues. Therefore, the delivery of the lesson has to be age-appropriate, with the clinical nurse educator identifying individuals’ personal learning abilities before delivering the lessons.
In the learning environment, it is inevitable that conflicts might occur among students or between students and the nurse educator. Valente and Lourenço (2020) argued that the conflicts arise due to differences in culture among the students in the classroom, or because of other factors such as the individuals’ personalities, value systems, interests, and learning needs. Conflict might also arise if some students feel excluded from the delivery of content because of diverse factors such as culture, age, or language (Valente & Lourenço, 2020). Thus, conflict management strategies that can work in the learning environment will be useful in creating a conducive learning environment for the diverse classroom.
Valente and Lourenço (2020) exemplified five conflict management strategies that can be adapted to the learning environment. They include (a) integrating, an approach for solving conflicts directly and in collaboration or cooperation among the parties involved; (b) dominating, in which the educator suppresses the students’ needs and expectations to achieve his/her goals; (c) obliging, in which the educator prioritizes the interests of the students rather than his/her own; (d) avoiding, in which the educator stays out of the situation that causes the conflict or chooses a neutral stance; and (e) compromising, in which the educator attempts to satisfy the interests of all parties by choosing a middle ground. Based on their survey of teachers in a typical classroom setting, the authors proposed that the educator should have high emotional intelligence (EI) quotient to be able to select the best conflict management approach to use in a particular situation (Valente & Lourenço, 2020). However, there was a better correlation betwe
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