Mary Gobbi, “Learning Nursing in the Workplace Community: The Generation of Professional Capital”

Mary Gobbi expands on Lave and Wenger’s ideas regarding communities of practice by noting that other professions and clients/patients can also become part of the development of a community of practice – learning occurs with and because of others outside what might formally be determined a “community of practice”. Drawing on nursing placements, Gobbi describes situations where professional judgement is exercised and finds the following about learning in groups:

• Learning is provoked by a need to make a decision
• Learning and decision making can involve discussion and consultation between members of a working community
• Knowledge gleaned in practice can be shared through leadership
• Situated learning takes place because the answer ‘wasn’t in a textbook’
• Decision making can refer to the tacit presence of the ‘other’, namely the patient for whom the decision applies (147)

Mary Gobbi, “Learning Nursing in the Workplace Community: The Generation of Professional Capital” in Chris Blackmore, ed, Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice (London, UK: Springer, 2010) 145.