Relationship Between Clinical Competency and Kolb’s Learning Style for Clinical Practice Education in Nursing Students

The purpose of this study was to understand Kolb’s learning style after clinical training of nursing students and to know the relevance of clinical competency according to learning type. The subjects of this study were 143 nursing students in 3rd and 4th year attending one of 2 universities that completed clinical training of more than 6 weeks. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 program. As a result of analyzing the difference of clinical competency according to general characteristics, it was found to be significant in school satisfaction), clinical training period, and clinical training satisfaction. In the learning style degree of the subjects, the assimilator was the most frequent with 31.5% and the accommodator with 25.2%. There was a significant difference in the nursing process among the 5 sub-variables in the analysis of the difference of the clinical competency according to the learning style of the subject. There was no correlation between the learning style and clinical competency. Therefore, by focusing on the learning styles of nursing students, it is necessary to grasp the learning style according to the period rather than once, and to make educational efforts for the qualitative change according to the maturity and environment of the learner.