Paedeatric Intensive Care Unit. A learning site for health professionals

This text (1) stems from the main conclusions of an ethnographical study carried out in a pediatric intensive care unit; the aim was to characterize the training experiences and processes of nurses and doctors, as well as to develop the role of training in a work context with a close connection between clinical practice and training practice. It focuses on the experience of the actors themselves, their characteristics and interactions, learning strategies and the way they develop their training. The study set out on the assumption that these health professionals obtain knowledge acquired in work contexts, based on experience, reflection of practice, informal and non-formal learning processes. The research has been developed around a central issue: How are nurses and doctors trained in a pediatric intensive care unit? In other words, how do nurses and doctors learn pediatric intensive care? In an attempt to address this issue, the training backgrounds and processes of the learning by doing of these health professionals has been presented.