Transformative learning as a context for human patient simulation.

Nurse educators are charged with the responsibility of empowering novice nurses to become autonomous thinkers with the capacity to cope with the many challenges of modern day practice. Human patient simulation is a powerful technology-based educational tool ideally suited for the application of emancipatory pedagogies that aid in the transformation of individual meaning schemes. Transformative learning theory provides educators with the tools to empower students to challenge their preconceived beliefs, assumptions, and values and socialize them appropriately to thrive in modern day clinical practice. The purpose of this article is to critically analyze the role of clinical scenarios using human patient simulation to promote transformative learning events in undergraduate nursing education. The authors focus on the role of debriefing in the promotion of the critical reflection and social discourse that is integral to the learning process and the implementation of scenarios that provide students with disorientating dilemmas for perspective transformation. Copyright 2010, SLACK Incorporated.