PATRICIA SAWYER BENNER
· Born Patricia Sawyer in August 1942 in Hampton, Virginia. Benner, her parents and her two sisters moved to California when she was a child.
· She earned an associate's degree in nursing from Pasadena City College simultaneously with a bachelor's degree from Pasadena College in 1964.
· Benner earned a master's degree in nursing from UCSF in 1970 and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982.
· Benner joined the nursing faculty at UCSF in 1982.
· Early in her academic career, Benner led the Achieving Methods of Intraprofessional Consensus, Assessment and Evaluation Project (AMICAE Project). She held an endowed chair at UCSF in ethics and spirituality for several years.
· In 2004, she became director of the Preparation for the Profession program at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Benner is a professor emerita at the UCSF School of Nursing and is a program leader with the school's PhD program in nursing health policy.
· She wrote her influential book, From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice, in 1984, based on her work with the AMICAE Project.Benner adapted the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition to the careers of nurses. The work describes a five-stage career trajectory from novice nurse to expert.
· Benner's model was based onqualitative research rather than quantitative studies, which has opened it to some criticism
From Novice to Expert Theory
PATRICIA BENNER’S work has become widely used in Nursing Practice, Research, Education and administration.
“As a Nurse the “knowing how” is the development of knowledge in fields such as nursing it is made up of the extension of knowledge through research and understanding through clinical experience “(P.Benner, 2014)
Major Concepts
Key Concepts
FIVE (5) LEVELS OF NURSING EXPERIENCE:
1. NOVICE
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No background on the situation on which he or she is involved.
Example: nursing student, staff nurse moving from Medical- Surgical Ward to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
2. ADVANCED BEGINNER
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Demonstrate an acceptable skill gained through an actual experience of a situation with direct supervision
Example: newly graduate nurse
3. COMPETENT
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Acquired the skills needed from the repeated exposure to the same situation and able to apply the rule of the thumb immediately
Example: nurse working from the same unit for 2-3 years
4. PROFICIENT
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Demonstrate skills with confidencein a holistic and quality driven approach
Example: nurse working on the same unit for 4-5 years
5. EXPERT
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Achieved the mastery of skills, having a clinical eye per se, uses intuition to gain control of the situation that are based from the deep experienced background.
Example: nurse working on the same unit for more than five years
CONCLUSION
A well-built foundation of learning and a continuous exposure to same situation will produce a remarkable experience, a refine body of knowledge and an expert skill.
References:
Alligood M. (2014) Nursing Theory: Utilization and Application. (5thed). St. Louis, Mosby, 347 p
Altmann T. (2007) An Evaluation of the Seminal Work of Patricia Benner: Theory or Philosophy, Contemporary Nurse 25: 114-123
Brykczynski K. (2014) Caring, Clinical Wisdom, and Ethics in Nursing Practice. (8thed.). St. Louis, Mosby, Alligood (p 139-155)
From Novice to ExpertPatricia Benner. (n.d.). In Current Nursing. Retrieved from http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/Patricia_Benner_From_Novice_to_Expert.html
Patricia Benner. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Benner
Patricia BennerFrom Novice to Expert- Nursing Theorist. (n.d.). In Nursing Theory Org. Retrieved from http://nursing-theory.org/nursing- theorists/Patricia-Benner.php
