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ABSTRACT
Psychomotor skills represent those activities that are primarily movement-oriented. In teaching, emphasis is placed on this movement component, although ultimately in practice, performance requires an integration of related knowledges and values. This article examines the process of psychomotor skill development and provides guidelines for teaching motor skills.
Psychomotor skills are an integral part of nursing practice in most healthcare settings. They are used in both assessment of the client and implementation of care. A review of nursing research in this area reveals few studies, and those that are available tend to focus on the comparison of different teaching methods or rationale underlying a particular technique (Oermann, 1988). This article examines the process of psychomotor skill development and provides guidelines for teaching motor skills to nurses.
Psychomotor skills are those activities that are primarily movement-oriented (Singer, 1975). Their performance requires neuromuscular coordination. Motor skills have a cognitive base, i.e., the scientific principles underlying performance of the skill, and an affective dimension that reflects the nurse's values and concern for the client while the procedure is being performed. In teaching psychomotor skills, however, emphasis is placed on the movement dimension itself, although in practice performance requires an integration of the cognitive and affective components with the motor. Teaching the related knowledge base and values, important in carrying out the skill, requires different teaching methods than those used for promoting psychomotor skill development.
LEARNING PROCESS FOR PSYCHOMOTOR SKILLS
In psychomotor skill development, performance of the skill and learning the skill are not the same processes. Performance is an action in response to specific cues and is transitory in nature. Learning, however, is more permanent and results from practice of the skill or past experience with it (Reilly & Oermann, 1985) . Through learning, how to perform the skill is stored in the learner's memory and, thus, is able to be retrieved on cue. The degree of learning is actually inferred from the nurse's performance; the teacher observes performance and infers whether learning has occurred. Learning the skill enables the person to repeat its performance (Kerr, 1982).
Reilly and Oermann (1985) describe the difference between ability and skill. Ability is a general trait influenced by heredity and learning. Skill, in contrast, refers to a specific task and...