Practice-based learning and innovation in nursing homes

Purpose: This article investigates the conditions under which learning and innovation occur withinnursing homes. It addresses the interplay between formal and informal learning situations and discusseshow these processes facilitate individual staff and workplaces’ capacity for innovation.Design/methodology/approach: Data was produced via fieldwork, which included participantobservations, conversations, and research interviews with staff and managers at a Norwegian nursinghome. The article is inspired by situated learning theories and communities of practice, as the socialcontext emerges as the site where learning and innovation are cultivated.Findings: The nursing home sustains a learning environment through managers and staff’s participationin planned learning situations and thereby highlights a focus on learning in their everyday practices. Theconditions for the interplay between planned learning situations and everyday learning practices areidentified as the effort to create a “joint enterprise” and reflexive practices.Social implications: The Global North is aging. Consequently, there is an increasing need for facilitiesand adequately trained professionals to support an aging population. Addressing these challenges willrequire an increased focus on developing supportive learning environments and furthering ourknowledge about the interconnections between learning processes and innovation.Value: This article contributes knowledge regarding nursing homes as professionally exciting places towork. Additionally, it points out conditions that allow for learning and innovation to be cultivated andthereby increase the quality of elderly healthcare services provided.Keywords: innovation, learning, workplace, competence, nursing homes

Til publikasjon: https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-09-2019-0112, https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3032090, https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3158522, https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3167908, https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2725833, https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2711971, https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3050790 | Publiseringsår: 2020 | Tidsskrift: Journal of Workplace Learning