Abstract:

The transition from school to university implies a drastic change in the learning processes for a student. Learning styles reflect habitual behaviors that determine different preferences within learning situations. One of the skills that nursing students must develop is critical thinking, which will help in decision-making to solve problems in the field of health care. According to Honey - Alonso, there are four learning styles, all people have some of them, being the predominant just one. In the licensing and accreditation processes of study programs in our country, universities have planned the need to implement strategies to improve their learning processes. This must be done based on evidence, such as the fact to know the particularity of the students entering the study programs. In health sciences programs, especially nursing, there is a need to be very careful in this, keeping in mind that the training process includes laboratory and pre-professional practices in clinical and community areas. In the process of the aforementioned issues, the present study aims to determine the learning styles in students who begin studies in a nursing program at a university in Lima. The scope of this research is quantitative, and the design is descriptive. The sample consisted of 25 nursing students from semester I. The data collection instrument applied was the Honey-Alonso questionnaire (CHAEA in Spanish), made up of 80 items, which values learning styles. The results obtained showed a mean of 15.12 in students who have a preference for the active style, the mean was 14.6 for the pragmatic style, the mean was 14.08 for the theoretical style and the mean was 4.64 for the reflective style. It can be concluded that the predominant learning style in this group of students is the active one. The findings shown are an evidence that will allow academic authorities to design strategies that respond to the individual needs of the nursing students who are in training process. Understanding the learning style preferences of nursing students will ensure quality integral training.

Keywords:

Learning, Students, Nursing.