This curriculum builds on several key educational and nursing concepts, including caring, the progression from novice to expert, constructivist theory, and instructional scaffolding.

Caring

The idea of caring is central to the curriculum. Practical nurses foster client empowerment in care planning and clinical decision making, and are cognizant of their unique biological, psychosocial, spiritual, cultural, and environmental complexity. Practical nurses care for clients across the lifespan, providing safe, competent, and ethical care through critical thinking and clinical judgment.  As part of the interprofessional team, practical nurses  contribute to client care through strong practical and technical skills.   Thus, the curriculum supports a deliberate, client-focused approach and fosters the development of a conscious relationship with the client.

Progression from Novice to Expert

Benner’s^[1],[2] five stages from novice to expert supports the notion that proficiency in a particular role is a progressive process and a function of time, experience, influences, encouragement, and feedback. The author  describes the progression one makes in a staged manner from novice to advanced beginner to competent to proficient and then achieving the expert stage. Progression through each stage is on a continuum, and changes in environment or circumstance may result in a potentially short-lived regression.

While commonly used in the context of developing clinical expertise, Benner’s theory is interpreted by Evans and Donnelly^[3] as applicable to the knowledge, skill, and judgment acquired by student nurses during their nursing education, which also progress through the same stages. Skills are not applied context‐free but are always supported by knowledge acquired through education. Subsequently, Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, and Day suggest that improved integration of cognitive learning, skilled know‐how, and ethical reflection will result in “instruction more consistent with the complexities of nursing practice.”^[4]

Constructivism

The curriculum also builds on the theory of constructivism, in which knowledge is constructed and all learning is connected. Constructed knowledge is always open to change as connections are continuously made to previous and new learning experiences. As well, constructivism offers a lens that views culture as being enacted relationally through history, experience, gender, and social position. A curriculum based on constructivism focuses on helping learners interpret and make meaning of knowledge and experiences, and encourages self-reflection of that interpretation.^[5]

Scaffolding

The curriculum incorporates the idea of scaffolding articulated by Wood, Bruner, and Ross, who defined it as a process by which a novice is able “to solve a problem, carry out a task or achieve a goal that would be beyond [their] unassisted efforts.”^[6] The scaffolds, which can be provided by a teacher or another more experienced peer, allow the learner to gradually achieve mastery of the task or goal. Throughout all levels of the curriculum, learners are guided and supported as they gradually build the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to meet the entry-level competencies.