Patricia Benner

FROM NOVICE TO EXPERT

 BSN Pasadena College 1964

She has been a staff nurse in the areas of medical-surgical, emergency

room, coronary care, intensive care units, and home care.

Masters Degree in Medical Surgical Nursing University of California,

San Francisco 1970

Doctorate 1982

Associate Professor 1989 Department of Physiological Nursing in the

School of Nursing at the University of California

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at

UCSF 2002

Benner’s Model has been influenced greatly by

Virginia Henderson
 SKILL ACQUISITION IN NURSING:
From Novice to Expert
 NOVICE – no background experience/ Unfamiliar situations.
Nursing students.
 ADVANCE BEGINNER – challenge of abilities. Newly graduated
nurses.
 COMPETENT – sense of mastery is acquired, increase level of
efficacy.
 PROFICIENT – increase confidence in knowledge and skills.
Involvement with the patient and family.
 EXPERT –
 possessing an intuitive grasp of the problem
 Possessing an embodied knowledge
 Seeing the big picture and the unexpected
PRACTICE
The model has been used to aid in the development of clinical ladders of promotion,
new graduate orientation programs and clinical knowledge development seminars.
Cited extensively in nursing literature regarding nursing practice concerns and the
role of caring in such practice.

EDUCATION
Seven domains of Nursing:
Helping Role
Teaching or coaching function
Diagnostic client-monitoring function
Effective management of rapidly changing situations
Administering and monitoring therapeutic interventions and regimens
Monitoring and ensuring quality of health care practices
Organizational and work-role competencies
 Benner’s model has universal characteristic for the reason
that
it is not restricted by age, illness, health, or location of nursing
practice.

 The descriptive model ha the potential for universal

application as a framework.

The descriptions are limited by dependence on the actual

clinical nursing situations from which they must be used.
 Benner’s model was tested using qualitative methodologies.

The framework is applicable and useful in providing knowledge of the

description of nursing practice.

The strength is that data-based research contributes to the science of

nursing.

 The model is most useful in giving a general framework for identifying,

defining , and describing clinical nursing practice.

“ A nurse’s clinical knowledge is relevant to the extent to which its

manifestation in nursing skill makes a difference in patient care and patient
outcome.”