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Dr. Benner’s Novice To Expert Critical Thinking Case Study
University of Phoenix
NSG 416
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Nursing is a career that requires critical thinking and social interaction skills. These are
skills that are learned and are improving every day in a clinical setting. The more experience a
person has in the field, the better caretaker they will be because they will learn how to adapt to
different types of situations. Dr. Patricia Benner created a theory of how nurses develop their
skills and understanding of how to care for a patient over time. Benner broke up her nursing
theory into five categories: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert. A
novice is a beginner with little to no experience. An advanced beginner has gained knowledge
from experience in an actual clinical setting. A competent nurse usually has a few years of
experience in the same field of work. A proficient nurse has a better holistic understanding of
nursing which helps them make decisions in the field. An expert nurses can connect to a situation
without relying on principals. Experts are flexible and efficient in the work field. These skill
levels show changes in how experience is used to guide the nurse’s actions whether its learning
or being engaged in a situation.
Personally, I believe I fall in the novice level of Benner’s model. I am new to the whole
medical field. Although I have one semester of experience in a clinical setting, I am still not able
to do tasks without guidance. There are a lot of skills I need to learn and practice. I feel that my
critical thinking and decision-making skills are not where it needs to be. For me to be a better
nurse and patient advocate, I need more experience in the field. I can sit and read the textbook all
day but until I get to put my learning into practice, I will not be able to continue to hone my
skills.
In the exam content, Sue is an experienced RN in the labor and delivery field. She also
volunteers at a clinic that helps diabetic patients. At the clinic, Sue is assigned a student nurse
who is about to graduate. Sue falls in the Competent level of Benner’s model. Although the
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diabetic clinic is not her main work, she has experience working there while also having
experience in another field of work in the hospital. The student nurse is in the advanced beginner
level of Benner’s model. She is about to graduate nursing school, so she has previous clinical
experience. However, her experience is most likely not in one specific field.
Sue is an experienced nurse who is overseeing a student nurse who is a few weeks away
from graduating. Sue is assigned two patients: one who has gestational diabetes and the other
who has been diabetic her whole life. Sue decides to assign the student nurse to the patient with
gestational diabetes while Sue takes the patient with lifelong diabetes. The gestational diabetic
patient began to have contractions that are two to three minutes apart while lasting around ten to
fifteen seconds. I believe Sue should have done the opposite with the assignments. Sue should
have taken the patient with gestational diabetes while assigning the student nurse the other
patient. First, Sue main field of work is labor and delivery which means she has more experience
with pregnant patients. This could be a good opportunity for the student nurse to shadow and
learn on how to care for a patient with gestational diabetes but to be assigned one on her own is
difficult. Also, the gestational diabetic patient began to have contractions. Sue has more
experience and can react to the situation better. Sue would be able to immediately assist the
patient in what they need. The student nurse might not have the experience and might panic in
that situation which could make it worse for the patient. In this scenario, the student nurse should
have been assigned to the patient with lifelong diabetes. The student nurse probably has previous
clinical experience with diabetic patients. Since the patient has diabetes for a long time, they
would know their body better which can help the student nurse. These types of patient know how
they feel and know if something is wrong or not. The patient would be able to point out things
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about their health which in turn would help the student be able to identify theories on what is
going on.
Dr. Patricia Benner’s Novice to Expert model provides an outline of the skills level in
nursing. Sue is a competent nurse while her student is in the advanced beginner. With more
experience, both will be able to move up in levels and have better skills. I personally think I am
still in the novice level. My experience in the field is low. Just like Sue and the student, the more
experience I get, the better the nurse I will be.