Abstract:

In most university degrees an adequate combination of practices and theoretical contents are an essential part of the pedagogical process. Moreover, the inclusion of knowledge based on different complementary disciplines can be a very useful tool to improve the learning of any subject. These two conditions, the interdisciplinary and the teaching practices, are present in the majority of the degrees, becoming a fundamental mainstay in the university education quality. However, we add a third condition, as fundamental as the two first, in the teaching and learning process: the skills, capacities and traits of the own person. This tandem is especially relevant in those areas that are directly developed with people, such as the degrees of psychology or nursing. In the present contribution we collect the methodology and the main contents of a learning experience based on the interaction of these three pillars. The central objective of the program was the transfer of theoretical and applied knowledge from the field of psychology to the nursing area. The program was implemented in a subject called “Psychosocial Sciences applied to health care”. In addition to the main objective we consider other specific goals specially focused on the constructive learning based on the students’ self-knowledge: 1) Teaching in techniques of introspection and self-management; 2) Acquisition of skills and abilities oriented to improve the relationship among nurses-patients-family (e.g., empathy, social skills, altruism); 3) To promote values -respecting the peculiarities of each person- mainly focused in the respect for people and the equality among groups; 4) Implementation of the learned content in oneself and in others. To achieve these objectives we used various techniques throughout the program: relaxation techniques, activities to improve self-esteem, group dynamics, sense of humor such as cope strategy, role playing for learning of verbal and non-verbal skills. As a final part of the program we conducted an evaluation on the satisfaction with it. The results indicated that the students valued the subject significantly above the average.

Keywords:

Interdisciplinary, teaching practices, nursing, psychology, introspection.