Importance of Application of Service-Based Learning in Clinical Nursing Education

Introduction: Clinical education is one of the most crucial parts of nursing education in shaping the professional identity. Successful education in this path requires effective approaches along with update knowledge, clients and patients’ needs. These approaches can provide necessary preparations for learners. Service learning that is aimed to train responsible and accountable students has found new position in the health professionals’ curriculum including nursing. This study aimed to discuss importance of application of service-based learning in clinical nursing education. Methods: This study is a review article. Related books and some database such as SID, Irandoc, Elsevier, Pub Med, Magiran during 1999-2011 were searched using keywords including clinical education, nursing, Service-learning and students. Results: Nurses should have strong leadership skills, management, citizenship commitments and respect to human diversity for entering real action areas. All these capabilities can be achieved in clinical practice as a part of nursing education. It seems that service- based- learning provides opportunities for students’ professional development and clinical competencies. Conclusion: Nursing education authorities can use interactive and participatory strategy such as service- learning for creating more coordination between colleges and hospitals, and converting hospitals to suitable training settings. This can help to reach clinical education goals as more as possible.