Family Skills Labs: Facilitating the Development of Family Nursing Skills in the Undergraduate Curriculum

Abstract

This article describes the implementation offamily nursing skills labs with undergraduate nursing students at the University of Calgary. The intent of the family nursing skills labs is to facilitate the development of family interviewing skills of students and to apply these skills to a variety ofclinical settings. The incorporation of demonstration interviews, role playing, and practice interviews provides students with simulated situations to implementfamily interviewing skills. Students who participate in thefamily skills labs are invited to consider therapeutic conversations as interventions and are offered a preferred relational stance for working with families. Specific strategies for implementing the family skills labs are proposed.