Exploring the learning experiences of registered nurses who are actively working with children with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This study explored the learning experiences of registered nurses when caring for children with intellectual disabilities (IDs), how they provided best and evidence-based care to children with IDs and any recommendations they had to improve nurses’ learning. To explore the learning experiences of registered nurses, the lens of feminist poststructuralism was used to understand how learning experiences were personally, socially, and institutionally constructed through discourse analysis and semi-structed interviews. This study found four themes; learning from others, learning from experience, learning from tools and resources, and constant learning process and unique learning curve. The nurses interviewed experienced informal and formal learning moments and opportunities that they turned into tacit and explicit knowledge. The process of learning to care for children with IDs is a unique and lifelong process that involves learning as you go and different learning processes because of the complexities and unique needs of children with IDs.