Developing compelling spaces for learning for nurse education

This paper introduces the concept of a compelling space derived from empirical research which uses an auto/biographical methodology to explore the learning of post-registration nurses. A compelling space is one that invites meaningful learning, where people feel able to take the risk of acknowledging that they do not know and become proactive in developing enquiry. When people are not distanced from one another, physically or psychologically, they can begin to discern where they might learn from as well as with one another. Key aspects of a compelling space are offered and explained and from which I tentatively draw some suggestions for developing nurses’ learning. Definitions of learning as used here draw upon notions of learning as something that may take many forms both formal and non-formal, not least when considered in life- wide as well as lifelong terms (West, Alheit, Siig Andersen and Merrill, 2007).