Dr. Benner was born in Hampton, Virginia, and received her bachelor's degree in Nursing from Pasadena College in 1964, and later a master's degree in Medical-Surgical Nursing from the University of California, Berkeley. After completing her doctorate in 1982, she became an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiological Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Benner is an internationally known lecturer and researcher on health, and her work has influenced areas of clinical practice as well as clinical ethics. This nursing theory proposes that expert nurses develop skills and understanding of patient care over time through a proper educational background as well as a multitude of experiences. Dr. Benner's theory is not focused on how to be a nurse, rather on how nurses acquire nursing knowledge - one could gain knowledge and skills ("knowing how"), without ever learning the theory ("knowing that"). She used the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition as a foundation for her work. The Dreyfus model, described by brothers Stuart and Hubert Dreyfus, is a model based on observations of chess players, Air Force pilots, army commanders and tank drivers. The Dreyfus brothers believed learning was experiential (learning through experience) as well as situation-based, and that a student had to pass through five very distinct stages in learning, from novice to expert. Dr. Benner found similar parallels in nursing, where improved practice depended on experience and science, and developing those skills was a long and progressive process. She found when nurses engaged in various situations, and learned from them, they developed "skills of involvement" with patients and family. Her model has also been relevant for ethical development of nurses since perception of ethical issues is also dependent on the nurses' level of expertise.
This model has been applied to several disciplines beyond clinical nursing, and understanding the five stages of clinical competence helps nurses support one another and appreciate that expertise in any field is a process learned over time.
Beginner nurses focus on tasks and follow a "to do" list. Expert nurses focus on the whole picture even when performing tasks. They are able to notice subtle signs of a situation such as a patient that is a little harder to arouse than in previous encounters. The significance of this theory is that these levels reflect a movement from past, abstract concepts to past, concrete experiences. Each step builds from the previous one as these abstract principles are expanded by experience, and the nurse gains clinical experience. This theory has changed the perception of what it means to be an expert nurse. The expert is no longer the nurse with the highest paying job, but the nurse who provides the most exquisite nursing care.
In the late 1960s, Benner worked in the nursing field. This included working as a Head Nurse of the Coronary Care Unit at the Kansas City General Hospital and an Intensive Care Staff Nurse at the Stanford University Hospital and Medical Center. From 1970 until 1975, she was a Research Associate at the University of California at San Francisco School of Nursing. Following that, she was a Research Assistant to Richard S. Lazarus at the University of California at Berkeley. From 1979 until 1981, she was the Project Director at the San Francisco Consortium/University of San Francisco for a project achieving methods of intraprofessional consensus, assessment, and evaluation. Since 1982, Benner has been working in research and teaching at the University of California at San Francisco School of Nursing. Benner has published nine books, including From Novice to Expert, Nursing Pathways for Patient Safety, and The Primacy of Caring. She has also published many articles. In 1995, she was awarded the 15th Helen Nahm Research Lecture Award from the University of California at San Francisco School of Nursing. She is currently a professor emerita in the Department of Physiological Nursing at the University of California at San Francisco School of Nursing. Some of her works include:
Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation (Jossey-Bass/Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching)
From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice, Commemorative Edition
Expertise in Nursing Practice: Caring, Clinical Judgment, and Ethics, Second Edition
Clinical Wisdom and Interventions in Acute and Critical Care: A Thinking-in-Action Approach, Second Edition
Interpretive Phenomenology: Embodiment, Caring, and Ethics in Health and Illness (Nurse-patient relations)
New Nurses Work Entry: A Trouble Sponsorship
Stress and Satisfaction on the Job
Reference:
http://www.nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/from-novice-to-expert.php
http://nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Patricia-Benner.php
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