RAPPORT
WWW.RECORDINGACHIEVEMENT.ORG
Issue 1 (2015)
number generator. There were, however, only
two students in the group with high scores for
the pragmatist style. They were included in the
project. Of the randomized students, two were
about to change course, two wanted to change
campus, and one did not want to participate.
Instead, five other students were randomly
selected, so ten female students and one male
student were included. In the original class there
were 39 female and one male student.
Ethics
Before commencing the study, the Head of
Nursing in the hospitals and the Nursing Home
approved access to the clinical placements. The
students received oral and written information
about the study and were included after
informed consent. During the participant
observations, the patients were informed that
the learning process of the students was the
focus of the study. Ethical Guidelines for
Nursing Research in Scandinavia (NNF 2003)
including the Helsinki Declaration were followed.
The study was submitted to the Danish Data
Agency (2013-41-2147). Formal approval from
the local Scientific Ethics Committee was not
required according to national legislation in
Denmark.
Generation of data
The author generated the data by participant
observations, narrative interviews and portfolio
documents. Each student was followed on one
of the first and on one of the final days of the
course. A day began with participant
observations of students nursing patients. The
participant observations should make it possible
to distinguish between learning by practising
and learning mediated by ePortfolio. The
observations were noted concurrently, as
recommended (Spradley 1980). When the
student had finished the nursing tasks, the
author interviewed the student for the first time
in an unoccupied room in the clinical setting. I
simply asked the student to tell me what she or
he had experienced by caring for the patients,
as the aim of a narrative in